"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?" -- Homer J. Simpson Our modern, hyper-connected world can sometimes be a real efficiency killer. We all have problems with time management. Some of us stay up until 2am trying to get our 24-hour cable tv money's worth. That same group stumbles out of bed at 10am. Others can't seem to get something started until a deadline is ...[read full entry]

Here's a list of my 7 favorite keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Photoshop. Some of these may be nothing new to you, others may be foreign. Either way, feel free to add on to this list below! Multiple Undo/Step Backward Ctrl + Alt + Z New Layer Ctrl + Shift + N Duplicate Layer Ctrl + J Save for Web Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S Zoom In / Zoom Out / Fit to Window Ctrl + = "Zoom In" Ctrl + - "Zoom Out" Ctrl + 0 "Fit to Window" Copy Merged Ctrl + Shift + C Launch ImageReady Ctrl + Shift + M [read full entry]

There's nothing worse than opening up a page and immediately being bombarded with an audio sales pitch or random sounds that are meant to get my attention. They get my attention alright. And I've decided to do something about it. Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox web browser that blocks flash from playing when a Web page is first loaded. Not to worry, if you really want to view a flash animation on a web page all you have to do is click on the place holder arrow graphic and you're good to go. The latest stable ...[read full entry]

Achieving active states on specific pages and categories has never been easier! I have come across many developers online who have simply given up too easily when it comes to automating their Wordpress installations. I can't blame most of them though...there really isn't a whole lot of concrete documentation on this subject. Not for novices/beginners, anyway. The following is the method I used personally to build this site's nav menu: (place this code in between your head tags and edit as you see fit) <?php if ( is_home()) { $active = 'one'; } elseif ( is_page('14') ) { $active = 'two'; } elseif ( is_page('15') ...[read full entry]

The Wordpress publishing platform has taken over the blogosphere over the past few years -- and with good reason. It's fast, free, easy to use, and most importantly: scalable. Community support for Wordpress is outstanding! I stumble across a new plugin or two everyday! Now, not all plugins are created equal and neither are websites. Scalability Matters Wordpress may not be the best Content Management System on the planet right out of the box, but with some tweaking you can create some really special things. With that said, I've compiled a list of the top 8 plugins I absolutely must have ...[read full entry]

A "favicon" is displayed to the left of a URL in your browser's address bar & in your Favorites folders. This is a really easy way to stand out from the crowd...just follow these simple steps: Open Photoshop or your favorite graphic editing program Create a small 16x16 pixel GIF or PNG image that is relevant to your site Save it as "favicon.ico". (If using Photoshop, you way need this plugin) Once you're done, upload the image file to your website's root folder and add the following code somewhere in between the head tags: Just switch out ...[read full entry]

Wordpress users take note and upgrade your installations with confidence. "Today we have two security-related releases available for both users of our main 2.2 branch and the legacy 2.0 branch. As these releases include only security and minor bugfixes they should not cause any plugin or theme compatibility issues, so you have no good excuse not to upgrade." Visit the Wordpress Blog for further details [read full entry]

For your tinkering pleasure, I present some of the best collections of wordpress themes I've found online: Feel free to add to this list.. 20 WordPress Themes That Don't Disappoint 100 Favorite Wordpress Themes The Best Minimalist WordPress Themes 10 Fresh, Elegant and Clean Wordpress Themes 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven't Seen [read full entry]

Here are some tools to help you conserve time and energy: 1. ColorZilla ColorZilla is a great extension for Mozilla's Firefox web browser. The main feature here is the ability to get a hex color reading straight from the browser and into your favorite photo editing program. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 2. Aardvark Another great Firefox extension that allows you to see exactly how a web page is contructed, block by block. Mouse over effects include: element type, css classes, IDs, and more! 3. Wikimedia Commons A huge collection of free ...[read full entry]

Man, it seems that over the years I've heard this same story countless times. I had a client a few years back who had to take a guy to court just to get his domain back after the site went untouched for over a year! Where are all of these "web designers" coming from? In 2005, Genma Stringer Holmes, founder of Holmes Pest Control in Nashville, hired a Web designer she'd met through her church. She wanted him to create two Web sites to boost sales for her 11-employee, $500,000 company. Holmes wasn't looking for anything particularly fancy—she just wanted an informational site about her company that ...[read full entry]

Search Engine Optimization is not a numbers game anymore....it's now a game of quality and relevancy. I see it all the time: Ranking #2 for a particular term is a website with over 2,000 backlinks. Who's #1? A modest website with a little under 20 external links pointing to it. How could this be? Upon further review, often times you will find that "#2" has gone out and collected links from anywhere and anyone (links pages, unrelated blogs, etc.). Site "#1" probably put in 1/10th of actual labor in attracting their links but they got them from the right places (related partners, relevant market & sub-markets, syndicated content). So ...[read full entry]

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." -- Theodore Roosevelt As a business owner, there's nothing like a hard day's work doing something you love. But while that inner sense of accomplishment is great, it often can cause stress to invade your daily routine in many different ways. Let's go over some things you can incorporate easily into your daily routine to alleviate your stress load: 1. Be an Early Bird! Let's think about this logically. What time of day is always the quietest and most calming of all? Early morning: from 4:30am-6:00am. Your neighbor's ...[read full entry]

Having a website developed without an outline is like building a house without a blueprint. You will end up spending more time, money, and energy if you fail to give your web developer the proper creative direction. For your next web project, make sure you put your brainstorming to paper. It will save a few headaches, keep your developer on task and help you stay within your budget. Here's an outline style that I like to use personally for many of my clients (sections are just examples): 1. Home a. section b. section c. section d. section 2. Services a. Listing of the services by category b. Each service page will feature: i. sub-section ii. sub-section iii. sub-section iv. sub-section 3. Portfolio a. section i. sub-section ii. sub-section b. section i. sub-section ii. sub-section: 1. super-sub-section a. super-duper-sub-section This is a very rough outline so ...[read full entry]

The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) industry is guilty of over-complicating the process of attaining good rankings. While ranking well with Google is no walk in the park, the concepts are very easy to grasp; even for novices. Here's a few tips and tricks for the aspiring optimizer in you: 1. Lay a solid foundation Make sure your web developer is well-versed in current W3C/SEO practices. If your website is standing on shaky ground from the get-go (bad navigational structure, duplicate content, links from bad sites, static TITLE tags, etc.) you will never give yourself a fair shot at taking over your key market(s). 2. Stay in the loop You can ...[read full entry]

By investing in a Content Management System, small business owners are now realizing just how easy it can be to cut out the middle-man and take care of routine website updates themselves. So what happens next? You've got this really cool system that's hungry for information and unless you got straight A's in college composition, it's probably most wise to hire out the writing on your site to a professional writer or someone with a natural knack for words. Ordinarily, small businesses may find it difficult to shell out extra money for a writer but when you cut out the need for a webmaster...you can then ...[read full entry]

All Bus Exchange of Winter Garden, Florida does a whole lot of business locally buying and selling motor coaches. They were seeking to expand their market share onto the internet but they didn't want a cookie-cutter brochure site. ABE needed a system that would grow along with them as their inventory grew on a daily basis. The ability to conduct updates on-site, 24 hours a day was a must. With some clever tinkering and re-programming of Wordpress' custom field modules, we were able to present ABE with an inventory system that they now fully operate. In fact, their secretary (who is in charge of ...[read full entry]

The web is littered with outdated and stale brochure-style websites that haven't offered their target audience any content in years. A blog can help you relieve your business of this dilemma, or if you're taking part in a brand new venture, avoid it altogether. Even huge web-based corporations like Google & Yahoo have gotten into the action -- and you can too! What's a Blog? Blogs are platforms that serve as a publicly-accessible journal for an individual or business. Typically, blogs are updated daily and are utilized to keep an audience up-to-date on a particular subject. Static vs. Dynamic During the PC boom of the late 90's, the world of ...[read full entry]

A Content Management System can help your online presence grow more efficiently by streamlining the publishing processes. Since you are in total control over your website, a quality CMS will save you the time and money it takes to have a third-party manage your site. 1. You know your business better than anyone. Why hand over creative control to someone else? Let's say you suddenly think of a great idea for your site after business hours that you just can't wait to get up. A CMS will allow you to effortlessly log into your site and make those changes anywhere, anytime. As with any business, time is ...[read full entry]