Blog | U Give Good Web

Starting a Website (Part 3) Putting it All Together

by Goodweb on February 6, 2012

Now that you have a domain name and a place to put your site, the next step is to get it online so that everybody can see it. (If you haven’t read part1 and part2, you might want to go back and read them before moving on.) Your website is a collection of pages specially coded in html to be read by a web browser like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer. There are three basic ways to get a website:

You can learn to make one yourself, which is beyond the scope of this post, but here are a couple of sites that can teach you the html and css some of the skills that you’ll need:

Sitepoint
W3schools.com
HTML Dog
HTML.net

Also check out the book Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. I love the Head First method of getting sometimes boring code and principles in your head in a fun way.

Hire a professional to make a custom site for you. That way, you can work with someone to develop a website that expresses you and/or your business.

Find a template and upload it to your site using an FTP program. I’ve already touched on this subject in a previous post. This way, you can just fill in the blanks in the theme with your text and photos. If you decide that you want to tweak the theme’s look or functionality, see steps 1 & 2 above.

Other Things to Think About:

Are you willing to devote time to the possible learning curve associated with learning to make and manage your website? If not, you’ll probably want to think about using a content management system (CMS). In addition to being able to upload and manage your site’s content, a CMS gives you a basic framework to start with and more control over the layout and functionality of your site. Plus, there are hundreds of themes to choose from, so even if you can’t get a template that has exactly what you want, you can get one that comes close. Three of the most popular systems are Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. All three of these systems have templates written specifically for their platform. This blog is written using WordPress.

Places to look for a template to upload:

HTML/CSS Templates:

If you’re not using a CMS and just want a template where you can fill in the blanks and upload it, here are a couple of resources:

100 Free High Quality XHTML/CSS Templates
38 Free Elegant XHTML/CSS Website Templates
ThemeForest

If you’re using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. try to find templates designed for that program:

Joomla:
Joomla24.com
SiteGround
Joomlashack
Drupal:
Drupal.org
Drupal 2 U
WordPress:
WordPress Themes Page
ThemeForest
Thesis
StudioPress

Once you’ve selected a theme for your site, you can finally put it on the web by using FTP to upload it to your webhost.

FTP Program Sites:

FileZilla client download page
SmartFTP
WS_FTP

I hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a line with any questions you may have.

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A Quick Guide to RSS

by Goodweb on January 10, 2012

Recognize the symbol above? Do you know how it can help your business?

RSS (alternately defined as “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication”) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many websites and blogs syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. It allows you to stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in from an RSS feed instead of having to visit each site every day to see if there’s any new content. In order to take advantage of this technology, you’ll need a feed reader.

There are several different kinds of feeds and many different feed readers. Commonly used readers include Bloglines, FeedReader3, Google Reader, and Yahoo Reader.

Yeah, but how does it help my business?

RSS is a good way to keep up to date with content you like, but it’s also a great way for your readers to keep up with your writing. If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can set up a widget to display your most recent blog posts. That way, your readers can keep track of your posts, news about your business, etc. You can also publish other people’s content that you read regularly, giving your readers an opportunity to open discussions with you and get more perspectives on the topics of interest. That way you get to know more about your readers, and they can learn more about you and your expertise about the subject you’re writing about.

Feel free to click on the RSS button in the upper right corner of my website if you’d like to keep up with my blog posts.

Here are some links of interest:

RSS Tutorial

Using RSS Widgets — Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to find this info

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What’s the Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

by Goodweb on November 7, 2011

WordPress is web software that’s used to create a blog or website. It’s popular because it allows users to upload articles, pictures, and other content to a site without any technical knowledge of html, css, or other internet programming tricks. Once again, I’ve recently found myself in situations where I helped people set up blogs on WordPress.com, or had to straighten out some confusion about the requirements and procedure for setting up a free standing website, when to use the blog site and when you can’t.

The main thing to understand is that WordPress.com is a hosted blog service, meaning that all you have to do is sign up for an account and start blogging. They take care of the technical worries, like spam protection, backups, managing a web server, etc. The trade off is that they control what kind of themes, plugins, and widgets you can use on the site. If you want total control of your site, you’ll want to set WordPress up as a free standing site. That means that you need to get a domain name, webhost, and the latest version of WordPress software, and then install it on your server. Once that’s done, you can install whatever themes and plugins you want (or write your own if you have the programming and coding skills). WordPress.org is just a website with lots of in-depth information geared to WordPress users, developers, and programmers. It has links to download WordPress software, plugins, and themes (website templates), and lots of support forums and tutorials in case you like to learn by doing.

WordPress.com Pros:

The basic service is free. They offer premium features that cost extra, but are still pretty reasonably priced.

The blogging interface is already set up and waiting for you to start writing posts.

There are many ways to customize the site using themes and widgets.

WordPress.com Cons:

You can only use the themes, plugins and widgets that they approve. You can’t upload your own.

You won’t have FTP access to your site. If you don’t know what this is, or why you’d want it, WordPress.com is probably the system you want to go with.

Adsense, Yahoo, Chitika, TextLinkAds and other ads are not allowed on free WordPress.com blogs. However, if your site has over 25,000 page views/month, you can turn on AdSense ads if you agree to split the revenue 50/50 with WordPress.com.

Free Standing Site Pros:

You have total control over your site — you can install whatever plugins or themes you want (or make your own, if you have the skills).

You can run whatever ads you want and you don’t have to split the revenue with anyone.

There are plenty of professional designers who make custom sites that reflect your (or your company’s) philosophy, message and brand.

WordPress.org Cons

You have to spend money on a domain name (I recommend using your own domain on WordPress.com too. It costs more, but at least you’ll own your site’s name.) and web hosting and install WordPress on your site. However, many major web hosts now include sort of easy one-click installation script like fantastico or simple scripts so that you can get up and blogging in no time.

The learning curve is steeper, but if you want to learn, there are many WordPress blogs and tutorial sites for beginners.

Which option is more appealing to you? Drop me a line and let me know.

Here are some links if you want to explore further:

WordPress.org – A motherload of information about WordPress. Check out the showcase if you need some web design inspiration.

Smashing Magazine’s WordPress page – Articles from Smashing Magazine for all levels of designers and developers.

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Facebook Tips for Beginners

by Goodweb on November 3, 2011

Facebook is a great way experiment with social media. You can use it to:

1) Keep up with friends

2) Get the feel of being part of a virtual community by finding and interacting with people who have similar interests to yours,

3) Tell people about your blog/website or business

How to make a personal profile:

Go to the Facebook main page and fill out the information on the sign-up screen. When you want to edit your profile info, click the “edit profile” button in the top right corner of your profile. Then choose the section you’d like to edit from the left-hand menu. You can check out the Facebook help page to get answers to questions about privacy settings, how to set up features like news feeds, playing games, uploading pictures, etc.

Now that you’ve gotten your feet wet with Facebook, one of the most important things to learn the is difference between personal pages, groups, and fan pages.

Personal Pages:

Facebook is now calling personal pages “profiles” or “timelines” (I guess calling it a “personal page” makes too much sense). Profiles (timelines) represent individuals and must be held under an individual name. This is the type of page to have if you want to communicate w/friends and family, put personal pictures on your page, rant about issues you think are important, “like” other people’s fan pages, etc. You can only have one profile page, but you can have many group and fan pages associated with it.

Groups:

People use groups to communicate with the important communities in their lives like their classmates or teammates.

You’ve always been able to post updates to groups, but now you can post questions and polls for just members to answer, such as “What movie should we see?” or “When should we should hold our next soccer practice?” You also have the option of uploading pictures or entire albums directly to your group, making it even easier to share your photos with the people who most want to see them. Facebook has also added a control that lets group owners approve people before they are added to the group.

Fan pages:

Fan pages represent entities like businesses, organizations, music groups, celebrities, etc. The information on a fan page is generally public and available for everyone to see. It’s a good way to keep fans updated on events, special promotions, and other official information that you want them to know. Anyone can become a fan by “liking” the page, and then information from the page will show up in the news feed on their page.

You can start a fan page from your personal page if you’re an official representative of the organization, but you must have your personal profile (timeline) set up first. Once you have set up a page within your profile, you can add other admins to help you manage it. People who choose to connect to your page won’t be able to see that you are the page admin or have any access to your personal account. Fan pages also come with the ability to see information on who is interacting with the page and how often by using Facebook Insights.

That’s enough for now. I left a short list of references below. As always, feel free to drop me a line if you have questions or if you want me to cover a certain topic.

Happy exploring!

Resources:

Facebook Basics

Facebook for Beginners Some of this info may be a little outdated, but it’s still a good general guide.

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How to Customize a Menu in WordPress

by Goodweb on October 25, 2011

Having trouble figuring out how to set up the menu tabs for your website’s navigation? Here’s a quick step-by-step guide that will work with most WordPress themes.

The menu items are dictated by the pages made, so you would create a menu containing your main (top level) items by creating pages with those titles.

From the Dashboard, select the “Pages” button on the left side. Click on the pictures for a larger view if necessary.

Select “Add New”

Enter a title for your page. It should be the same name as you want the menu tab to be.

Enter text and pictures if they’re available. If they aren’t you can add them later.

Click the blue “Publish” button on the upper right side to save and publish the page.

The menu will automatically show the page titles that you just created in alphabetical order.

If you want to arrange the pages in some other order, you’ll need to specify this by changing the order number in the “Order” box in the “Page Attributes” box on the lower right side. The first page is always “0″, and then the next menu item will be “1″ and so on. If for some reason, you want more than 1 page with the same order number, they will appear in numerical and then alphabetical order.

Drop Down Menus:

To make a drop down menu, follow the instructions above, but when you’re finished making the page for the menu item that you want to “drop down”, select the main page you want that page attached to from the “Parent” list in the “Page Attributes” box.

Select the “Parent” page that the submenu will drop from and then enter a number in the “Order” box.

That’s it. Happy menu making!

For more info, check out the WordPress codex article on pages.

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Posting to Your Blog 101

by Goodweb on October 17, 2011

To create or update blog posts in WordPress:

Go to your web browser of choice and enter http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin
You will get the login screen for your site

Enter your name and password and click the login button. That will take you to the dashboard screen.

Click the word “posts” to see a screen of options related to writing/uploading a blog post. For now, just click on the “add new” button under the “Posts” heading.

Enter a title and the content for your post. If you want to your work to finish later, click the “save draft” button on the upper right side. If you’re satisfied with your work and want to post it for everyone to see, click the blue “publish” on the right side.

These are also the basic instructions for creating and posting a new page to your website. Just click on the “pages” button instead of “posts”. The rest of the procedure is pretty much the same. You may also want to check out my post on uploading pictures to your site.

Coming up, categories and post tags. Stay tuned.

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Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs — What’s the Difference?

by Goodweb on August 26, 2011

I found myself in conversations several times this week explaining social media in general and the difference between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs, so I took it as a sign that I should write a post about it.
When people say social media, they can be talking about any type of online, interactive communication, whether it’s telling others about links that you think are interesting (Digg, De.licio.us), posting your pictures or videos online (flickr, YouTube), or keeping people up to date on your activities (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a blog). This is just a quick and basic overview. If you want me to write something more specific, or have a question, feel free to leave a comment.

Blogs

The word “blog” comes from the words weB and log. Think of a blog as an online diary. Having a blog attached to your website can help with search engine rankings since your readers will have a reason to visit your site more often if you update your blog regularly. I like to think of a blog as the cornerstone of your online personality since it can reach different kinds of readers. By contrast social media accounts will only be seen by the users of that site (for example, Twitter posts only reach people who follow you on Twitter). I usually advise my clients to start with the blog, and then link the other social media accounts to it.
Some people blog to make money. They write posts that are informative and/or entertaining and get paid through the ads that they have on their site. There are free blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress.com, but the customization options are limited, so if you want to have control over your blog’s domain name, how your blog looks, or its advanced functions, (especially if you’re setting it up for a business or organization), you might want to invest in your own website.

Facebook

Colleges used to publish a book of names and pictures of the freshman class, commonly called a “Facebook” so that incoming students could get familiar with their classmates. Now Facebook is an online meeting place for everyone. You create a personal page and make access to it as public or private as you want. Reach out to people you know by “friending” them. That way, they’ll be able to see your page, and you’ll be able to see theirs. Check out these points of Facebook etiquette to know before becoming “Facebook friends” with everybody. Use your “status feed” to tell your friends what’s on your mind, post music, video clips or links to news articles, blog posts, etc. You can also join groups, use the “like” button to agree with articles, pages, or other people’s comments. If you have a business or organization to promote, you can create a “fan” page so that people can find out more about it,the products and services it offers, recent news, etc.

According to their website, “LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.” Think of it as Facebook for grownups I find it valuable as a place where I can keep up with news on former co-workers, interact with professionals that have interests similar to mine, post my professional profile, and sometimes find people in need of my services.

Twitter

Twitter is a way for associates to stay in touch by sending short messages of 140 characters or less, commonly called “tweets” to keep each other up do date on the day’s activities. A Twitter feed is basically a timeline that shows answers to the question “what are you doing?” You “follow” people whose tweets interest you, whether you know them personally or not. For example, both Conan O’Brien and Ashton Kutcher have a large number of followers on Twitter. I tend to follow people who tweet about WordPress or web development. Twitter users tend to be more comfortable with social media and use it to contribute to online conversations. They tend to have a blog, and know how to search social media to get information about new products, news and trends. Twitter can have a steep learning curve. Thankfully Mashable has written a Twitter guide book that gives good answers to commonly asked questions. There are also instructional videos on the site.

That’s the quick overview. Go out and explore some of these programs, and see how they work best for your needs.

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Starting a Website (Part 2) — Choosing a Web Hosting Service

by Goodweb on June 12, 2011

Now that you have chosen a domain name (Part 1), the next step is to find a web hosting service. A web host provides space on a computer connected to the internet (the server) where you’ll put the files and programs needed to run your website. There are hundreds, if not thousands of different web hosts. Most however, fall into one of three categories:

Free hosting — usually this is a host that provides a space to host a website in exchange for the right to post advertisements in a banner or a sidebar on your website.
Shared hosting — A web host that provides server space for you to run your website (and usually extras like email, web wordpress and other programs)for a monthly or yearly fee.
Dedicated hosting — This is a web host that charges you a fee to maintain your site on your own personal server. They provide a cooled environment, backup protection in case the power goes out, and may lease computer equipment for you to use, but you’re responsible for what goes on your server, the security of your files, backing up your data, etc.

For this article, I’m talking about how to choose a shared hosting service.

Features to think about:

Disk space & Bandwidth — Many hosts now offer “unlimited” disk space and bandwidth. Actually no web host can offer unlimited bandwith, but the average website doesn’t take up enough bandwidth or server space to put a strain on their servers, so they all make that claim. If you plan on running a large e-commerce or graphics intensive site you will want to read the terms of service to see how much space you will actually be able to use.
Uptime — No web host can guarantee 100% uptime, but it should be in the 95% range.
Customer support — Look for a company that has 24/7 hosting and that has human beings for you to talk to in addition to email and chat service.
Programs supported — If you’re thinking of starting a blog or setting up a site using WordPress as a CMS, you need to make sure your host supports it. The same applies to other programs you may want to use such as Zen Cart, Joomla, Drupal, etc. If you’re planning on writing your own programs, widgets, or plugins, make sure the host supports the language you want to use.
Security — When searching for a new web host or evaluating the security of your own host here are some things to consider:

SFTP – Secure File Transfer Protocol. Files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) can be changed with little or no trace of tampering. SFTP closes this vulnerability. Check to make sure that this option is available to you via your web host.
SSL –Secure Sockets Layer. SSL provides an encrypted path between the browser and web server. You can tell if an SSL certificate is being active if you see a locked padlock symbol on the address bar and https:// in the address as opposed to http://. If you run an Ecommerce site an SSL certificate is a necessary to protect sensitive information like credit card and account numbers. Whenever you need to gather personal or financial data, an SSL certificate is a must.
Backups – Back your site up regularly! Usually the web host provides a backup program on the control pane, and it’s a good idea to make a backup periodically and keep it on your hard drive and/or a thumb drive. Most hosts back up the servers regularly every few days or so, but their copy may not include all of your latest data, so don’t rely on their copy. Check to see how often the host backs up their servers, what method they use and where backups are stored.
Server maintenance – The web host should make sure the server is adequately maintained and upgrades and patches are installed in a timely manner.

In the next installment I’ll talk about FTP programs, website templates and putting it all together. Stay tuned.

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Starting a Website — First Steps (Part 1)

by Goodweb on May 10, 2011

You’ve finally decided you want a website and/or blog, but where to start? You’re going to need a domain name, a web host, a web page coded in html, and an ftp program to put it on the internet.

A Domain Name — Your domain name is like your address on the internet. It’s what people are going to type into a web browser to find you. It’s going to go on your business cards and advertising so put a lot of thought into it. It’s one of the most important decisions you can make when starting up a site.

Some tips for choosing a domain name:

Keep it short and simple — For example, ugivegoodweb.com is a lot easier to remember (and type) than tonis-web-design-blog.com. Also, you want something easy to spell and describe. You don’t want to have to explain “tonis with no apostrophe and hyphens between all the words” every time you ask someone to check out your site.

Find something that ends in .com if possible — Most people automatically put .com after a web name. .net and .org may be o.k. too depending on what your site is for, but if you can’t get one of those, try a different name.

Pay attention to keywords for your site — Get a name that contains keywords that you think your readers will look under to find your site. For example, if you have a massage practice try to get a name that contains words like massage, health or spa. Ask yourself what words you would Google if you were a new client trying to find a site like yours.

After you’ve settled on a domain name, you’re going to need to buy ownership rights to it. Usually domain names are sold for one or more years at a time, and if not renewed in a timely manner, the registration can be sold to someone else on a first-come-first-served basis.

Tips for choosing a domain registrar:

Accreditation — Make sure the domain registrar is certified through ICANN — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This is the international agency responsible for keeping track of internet addresses.

Interface — Is the website for purchasing and managing your domain name account easy to use? Are you able list your contact info as the administrative, billing and technical contact? If not, you might not be able to move your domain name to a new registrar should you decide to go with another company in the future. Can you choose to keep your registration info private on whois?

Price — Usually around $10. If you’re trying to buy a domain name from someone else at auction, be prepared to pay significantly more. You may also be charged extra fees for services like private registration, hosting, email, etc.

Customer Service — Do they have 24/7 assistance? How fast is their response time?

Some Domain Registrars:

Name.com This is the company I use. I’ve never had a problem with them.
NetworkSolutions.com They’re not the cheapest, but if you’re planning to manage a lot of different domains and websites, they’re definitely a company to check out.
GoDaddy They may be one of the most popular, but I think their user interface is complicated and it always takes me longer to perform tasks on their website.

In part 2, I will discuss things to know about web hosting companies. Stay tuned.

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Creative Differences or How to Choose a Good WordPress Theme

by Goodweb on April 18, 2011

My friend Kendra called me to take a look at the new theme she picked for her blog. It was a very clean, elegant, monochrome site. She told me she liked it because it put the focus on the writing — it was a theme for writers. Many of the readers who left comments on her Facebook page said they liked it because it focused on the clean design and the fact that several articles could be accessed from the front page at once. I love reading the stuff she writes, but while this may be a theme for writers, it’s not a theme for bloggers.

The theme she’s using is called “The Erudite”. On its site the description says “The Erudite is a free, open source theme for writers. If you rely on superfluous visual design and/or content to distract your visitors from the shoddy state of your writing, move along, nothing to see here (literally).

“For those still here, The Erudite is a theme for writers who want readers, not visitors, traffic, click-throughs, CPMs or what-have-you. Just the words that you put on the virtual page, alone and naked. Nothing to distract your readers from your prose. Scared?”

I can see why writers want a theme that showcases their prose but does he have to be so condescending about it? The designer seems to feel that writing without thought of reader interaction, or God forbid, reaping some sort of monetary reward from one’s writing is not noble. I don’t think that good content and an interesting design have to be mutually exclusive. Many people read blogs looking for a way to interact with the author and other readers, or to learn more about the blog’s subject. Isn’t that one of the reasons why blogging and social media sites are so popular these days?

My main beef with this theme is that nothing appears in the sidebar. Ways to get to content other than the most recent articles on the front page are “below the fold“. Most readers are used to looking in a sidebar for a list of other blog posts, a search bar, or a list of links, and won’t think to scroll down and look for what they don’t see. Also, in helping Kendra configure the widgets at the bottom of the site, I had a hard time getting them to work the way we wanted them to, and I know what I’m doing.

I realise that others can benefit from my experience with this theme, so here’s my (partial) list of things to consider when picking a WordPress theme:

Start by taking a look at sites that you like. What is it about it about the design that attracts you? Don’t base your choice on what the site says. You can always change the content. That’s the reason you’re using WordPress.

Here are some basic questions to ask yourself before you go wading through hundreds of themes:

What’s the primary purpose of the site?

Are you using it to spread information about a business or organization? If so, you’ll want a site that’s easy for visitors to navigate, is visually interesting, and easy to update. Check to see if it’s widget-ready. Is it easy to add widgets to the sidebar(s) or footer ?

Are you blogging for pleasure? Then your main focus will probably be on finding a theme that expresses your personality and your message.

Do you plan to make money with your site? If so, you’ll want to have a sidebar or two where you can post ads and widgets, and you may want to set up PayPal buttons to ask for donations or sell goods and services.

Regardless of what you plan to do with your site, there are some things to be considered no matter what type of site you’re planning:

Functionality. What would you like your site to do? How much control do you want over the layout, color scheme, menu(s), etc. ? Do you know html, css, and php? How much time are you willing to take to figure out how to get the look that you want? If you want a site that looks exactly like something you saw online, then you (or someone else) will need to customize either a free or premium theme, or get a complete custom one written for you.

The navigation scheme — Does it have a menu bar and is it easy to find? How easy is it to get to the previous or next page, or to find a search box, list of recent posts, or leave comments?

The color scheme and graphics — While this is fairly easy to change in a lot of themes, a lot of people tend to base their choice on a color that expresses the “feel” of the site. Will it be easy to include your company’s logo or header graphic? Is the header appropriate for your site? For example, if you’re writing a blog about stock trading, you don’t want a header full of pink and blue balloons and stuffed animals.

Cost. How much are you willing to pay for a theme?

Now that you have a better idea of what you’re looking for, you might want to check out the WordPress Free Themes Directory, or take a look at some premium themes like Thesis, Genesis, or themeforest. You can also find lots of theme reviews in online web design magazines like Smashing Magazine.

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