October 7, 2011

October 6, 2011

October 5, 2011

September 30, 2011 — Working as a freelance web designer and at several small studios, I’ve gained some experience in designing and marketing websites to small businesses. Since I started using WordPress for most of my websites, I’ve found that the value that independent designers are able to offer their clients increases exponentially.

Pairing WordPress on-site SEO advances with an intelligent and realistic internet marketing campaign will generate new focused leads with minimal upkeep. If you can design beautiful and eye-catching websites and gear them for better search engine visibility, then you’re in business.

September 30, 2011 — WordPress has been greatly improved over the last few releases. Along with interface changes, the release of WordPress 3.0 combined WPMU into the standard version of WordPress. Though the setup seems simple there still are a few added steps to get WordPress Multisite setup and working correctly at the site and server level. Multisite is a great tool for many businesses who have multiple product sites or even multiple storefronts. With some added tricks and a few hacks you can push the limits of Multisite and manage several sites with a little effort.

September 30, 2011 — This insightful workshop will take you from theory to practice by helping you understand not merely ways to do stuff, but also why and how stuff works. We’ll start by exploring the foundational philosophies that drive the social media and Internet communities; then we’ll discover three timeless principles for starting your online presence with audience. Most importantly you’ll walk away with a strategy you can start right away.

September 30, 2011 — Many school and .edu sites are still stuck in the 90’s. They’re quite often still hand-coded, lack a CMS, and miss the mark on today’s design standards and best practices. WordPress is an excellent option for these sites and there are many great .edu sites that run on WordPress.

This presentation will cover basic design elements and best practices surrounding SEO strategy and content development. And having a kick-ass site is just half the battle. We’ll discuss ways to tackle slow-moving IT departments, secure buy-in from multiple stakeholders, and make your dream .edu site a reality.Additionally, we’ll examine examples of both good and bad .edu website implementations.

September 29, 2011 — The goal of this session is achieve successful design principles overall for websites and how WordPress can help achieve this! We’ll be covering how to identify a bad design, how to plan for an efficient design, and cover best practices for user experience in regards to websites and suggest strong strategies.

September 29, 2011 — They say SEO is dead but that’s not true, it’s just a different animal now. By constructing well organized content you can rise through the ranks of the Internet clutter and gain key visibility and position your company and brand as subject matter experts.

September 29, 2011 — The number of free and premium themes for WordPress has EXPLODED over the past couple of years. As such, the range of quality and consistency from one theme to another can be enormous.

The theme-ing business has quietly become a multi-million dollar cottage industry where single designers (like myself) are making upwards of $200,000 a year just by releasing themes.

Much has been discussed across the net about design standards, coding best practices, and the ever changing theme environment – I’d like to take the conversation a step further by examining the entire theme-marketplace as a whole and suggesting a ”manifesto” for theme designers.