We know that many will be nervous about updating when they have a site that is functioning both to their and their visitors satisfaction. After all, to get to this stage, involves most of us in significant amounts of blood, sweat and tears and we naturally want to avoid anything that might jeopardise our investment.

Please view the WordPress video summary of the features by clicking to read the rest of this entry - it may help you to decide whether to upgrade or not.

Our thoughts?

- you will need to upgrade at some point – it’s just a case of when.

- do the new features justify the time and planning required to upgrade successfully?

- will your hosting support Version 3.2? This version will only run if you have MySQL 5 and PHP 5.2.4 – a step up from the hosting requirements for previous versions.

- are you sure that any plugins essential to the operation of your site will function in the new version? If not, will you need to postpone your upgrade until the plugins have been tested or upgraded themselves or maybe find alternative solutions to the plugins you have been using.

- if you have the time and a spare database on your hosting account, you might want set up a test WordPress installation to see how the new version of WordPress functions with the modifications you may have made to your WordPress site and the plugins you have come to depend on, before you upgrade your ‘live’ site

- have a look at what others are saying in the WordPress community about the advantages and disadvantages of the new version.

- if you are going to upgrade, please, please, please, make sure you have backups of both your database and your site files!

Get Up and Running with WordPress…

…is a one and a half day, hands-on course, delivered in your office or home, on a 1 to 1, personal basis, that will enable you to professionally set up and manage a WordPress site.

Training is available now in the West Midlands area.

Our training starts with a full day session, followed by a half day around – we would recommend – a week later, to enable clients to reflect on and consolidate their learning. Participants will have access to a WordPress site installed on our hosting for 3 months in order to continue to practise and refine their skills as well as a range of recommended plugins dealing with: content editing search engine optimisation contact forms presentation of images database backup social media Google Analytics sitemap generation INP Training assisted me to develop a functional WordPress website in under 2 days. They made the learning experience interesting and accessible. In under 2 days I now have a working knowledge of how to set up and develop a WordPress blog/website. Karl Willetts Business Link Account Manager Click here to find out more >>

We are really impressed with the Yahoo Web Player, mainly because it satisfies our two main criteria for a great WordPress add-on – the degree of impact or benefit it provides and its ease of implementation.

It allows you to present a playlist of video and audio to your web site visitors, presented in a really professional way that will both retain and engage.

Just as an example we've put together two You Tube videos to show how a playlist might be presented while saving on valuable screen space which would be used up if we were to embed the videos on the page instead. You can add audio to your playlist, play an entire playlist from a single link and much more. This is obviously a third party service so there is a dependency here in terms of, for example, continued availability or the potential future introduction of charging, but you can't have everything…

Forums can be a big plus – even essential – for many web sites, encouraging dialogue with, and retention of, web site visitors.

But, choosing and implementing an effective forum can be time consuming and frustrating. Just installing and configuring some forum software can induce a severe migraine! And then there's the administration of the forum, security considerations to worry about, let alone prompting and encouraging ongoing participation…

Don't get us wrong – there are are some forum solutions that we've tried and been perfectly happy with – phpBB, for example, or, perhaps especially Simple Machine Forum. They are really powerful, well established forums that will probably provide you with all the features that you could want…and then some.

What, though, if you want something much simpler, for use by a relatively low number of users, much easier to implement and something that will easily integrate within a WordPress site?

We tried a few options, but have finally started to work with the bbPress plugin. (Screenshot below)

We had a test forum up and running within a few hours and so far, so good. The bbPress plugin certainly hasn't got a wide range of features, but for our purposes that's probably just as well. We want the forum to be as easy to administer as it is to use for basic forum communications.

The only drawback for us is the inability to hide the contents of the forum from unregistered users but we're going to try and resolve this through a membership system plugin.

Setting up a forum isn't something most people want to every day (year?!!), so minimising the pain was an important consideration for us.

I have read that bbPress is moving from a 'standalone' application, with the focus to be on the plugin. Hopefully this will mean increased features and improvements to come. I hope our positive first impressions are justified when the application's properly tested.

Many small companies still do not have a web site that effectively promotes their business and, even more, do not offer the online purchase of goods and services – Ecommerce.

And that’s not a criticism…

It’s perfectly understandable given that:

• times are hard and budgets are tight
• Ecommerce is often regarded as difficult and costly to implement and, with limited in-house resources and skills perhaps, even more tricky to manage
• it’s difficult to justify up-front costs when the revenue from Ecommerce is uncertain

But, using WordPress as the platform for your web presence, Ecommerce is a realistic option for all who want to cost-effectively and professionally sell products or services online.

Give you some reasons why…?

• with a WordPress-powered web site, you can incorporate Ecommerce within an existing site structure and design, without starting all over again
• WordPress allows content to be managed by clients, rather than web design companies – and this applies to the Ecommerce elements of sites as much as to other content – keeping ongoing overheads to a minimum
• WordPress, as it has developed, has excellent search engine optimizsation capabilities, making WordPress sites, if properly set up and managed, capable of achieving high search engine visibility with the consequent positive effect on site traffic levels

As a small company ourselves, we are convinced, but to convince you, we thought what better way than to develop a demonstration WordPress Ecommerce site, that illustrates one approach to Ecommerce, so you can see for yourself…

There are many web design companies in Birmingham, let alone the UK, so why should you consider Itsnoprob to help you with your web project?

• we are a small company, so every project and every client is important to us
• we have been in the Internet business for over 10 years, so we think we know a little…and we're not going to disappear!
• we have a natural affinity with SMEs, being one ourselves
• we are not geeks (OK, not completely!) and understand that a web site is not an end in itself but rather a means to an end

• we can provide you with a WordPress-powered web site (like this one) and training/support that will enable you to manage your site for yourselves
• we are not just designers, we are not just coders… We provide a range of services required to mamimise the returns from an Internet presence (such as search engine optimisation, web site maintenance, optimised copywriting and more…)

Are we communicating that we want your business?!!

Good, that was our intention.

If you are thinking of using WordPress for your web site project, it can be difficult to know what to think about!

OK, according to WordPress.org,‘over 25 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home”’. 

Surely, millions of people can't be wrong, can they?

But millions of people are not you and you will want a solution that can achieve the particular objectives of your web site project.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter and we will send you a FREE copy of our 15-page e-booklet 'Is WordPress the Right Platform for Your Web Site Project?'

Sample Page Screenshots

The Hearth Centre harnesses the transformative strength of the arts. They use professional theatre to trigger discussion about how services can be changed or improved. They offer role play to encourage staff to try out different professional approaches .They also offer creative writing and reading workshops to promote the well being of individuals and groups.

The Hearth Centre has had a web presence for a long time but wanted firstly the ability to manage web site content themselves (a content management system) and, secondly, the incorporation of a blog.

WordPress proved the ideal solution for both requirements.

Itsnoprob worked with the existing 'static' HTML design and converted it into a WordPress theme. The majority of the site looks like a 'traditional' single column web site, giving full screen space for the presentation of content, but the blog element can be triggered on any page from the distinctive graphic at the bottom.

The redesigned site has only just gone live, so watch for the blog postings to come!

Equilesse Pilates already had a web site but required a complete redesign of the site using WordPress, largely due to its content management capabilities.

The new design is a good example of how the 'appearance of a traditional, 'static' web site can be effectively combined with a blog component.

Itsnoprob completed and implented the redesign in around 2 weeks against a clear brief from the client who clearly communicated not only the nature of the business, but also the 'feel' or 'tone' of the required design, colour scheme, etc.

At Itsnoprob we can offer a complete design service, including the loading of initial content, training in site management, search engine optimisation, etc., For this project, however, we were asked to just provide the web site 'theme', along with appropriate plug-ins to aid site management and promotion. The 'outline' site was then handed over to the client for the publication of live content.

At the time of writing, the site is live but still being developed…

Witrnig cpoy for yuor web stie is one tihng, cmmouncaingt eecievfftly is qiute aohtner!

One of the great advantages of WordPress is the ability to quickly and easily add content to your web site or blog – content which tends to be very quickly picked up by Google amongst others.

But writing appropriate content for the web that both communicates and boosts web site traffic through increased search engine visibility is time consuming and not necessarily easy.

What reaction do potential employers have to CVs that are full of typos?

Will web site visitors – perhaps potential clients – react any more positively to content that isn't carefully written and checked before publication?

Witrnig cpoy lkie tihs mghit get you nicdeot, but wlil it carte the rghit ipssiomrrn?

Our optimised copywriting service can help with producing copy that:

• is read
• boosts search engine visibility
• increases web site traffic
• aids visitor retention

Waht do you tinhk?