After we gathered for opening remarks from the head organizer, Seattle WordPress expert  Bob Dunn, the show was on.

Lucy Beer, whose Web Training Wheels site I have recently been following, has been using WordPress since 2004 and has a great amount of experience in teaching all levels of WordPress to folks.  Her presentation, Going Beyond the Basics, dug into how to properly change files, the meaning of the most important WordPress theme files,  and what to do if something on your site breaks.  I love her teaching style – very laid back, engaging and easy to understand.  I can tell she is a great teacher to all her clients – something that I aspire to be.

Takeaways from Lucy’s talk: (slides here)

• If you have purchased a theme that you are customizing, create a child theme and make your changes to that theme’s style.css file so updates do not overwrite your changes.
• Anatomy of a WordPress Theme by Yoast is a great overview for understanding theme files
• Favorite part: making live changes to a website’s style in Chrome Developer Tools.  It’s always fun to see a designer work.

The second talk I attended was “Things We Learned the Hard Way, Things WP Pros Wished They’d Known Years Ago” by Michael Pick.  This was a fun and interactive presentation and I really enjoyed the conversations that Michael stirred up in the room: client stories from hell, how to get content from your clients, and pricing strategies.

Takeaways from Michael’s Talk: (slides here)

• Only download themes and plugins from reliable sources, especially free ones.  Download free themes from the WordPress repository because they have been carefully reviewed by the WordPress team.  NEVER download a theme from a Google search.  Some creators will purposely add bad code to the themes.
• The best client from hell story I’ve ever heard:  a client who wanted nothing but black hat techniques, duplicating content across several sites and then wanted to build a site about hypnosis porn.
• Michael is part of a team that just launched the site www.codepoet.com which houses fantastic content for people who build WordPress sites, including free digital books, “Getting Pricing Right” & “Wordpress Meet Responsive Design”

No presentation was more powerful than Scott Berkun’s Keynote Address about Lessons Learned from a Daily Blogger.  Scott is a best-selling author, creator of the Daily Post  and one incredible speaker.  He even lectures about how to be a great speaker and no wonder –  he makes it look so natural and easy.  My favorite part of his presentation was his honesty about writing content – IT IS WORK!  There is no magic widget or tool that creates blog posts for you.  It takes a fraction of the time to consume a piece of writing than to create it.  After his eye-opening talk,  I had a much bigger appreciation for website content and the high expectations of new bloggers.  Designers can let their ego take over with the look of a site when it is the content that really is the heart of the website.  Next on my reading list, Scott’s book “Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds”.

After a delicious sack lunch from the Sammy Café, there were 2 presentations that really grabbed my attention.

WordPress Security 101, from WordPress Security expert (and local political activist) Andrew Villeneuve, was a mind-blowing reminder of all the ways hackers can get into your computer and WordPress website.  I was overwhelmed at all the ways one should protect their computer and website.  I need to get crackin’.

Takeaways from Andrew’s talk: (slides here)

• Always keep your WordPress core files, theme and plugins updated to the current version. These updates are key in protecting your site from the latest security holes.
• Make an offsite backup of your site including all files and your database.  Don’t store it on your hosting server.  Save the backup on your cloud or local drive.
• Utilize Secure HTTP (Https) for your WordPress administrative sessions. This can be turned on by just adding one line of code to the wp-config.php file after activating or buying secure hosting from your web host.

Last but definitely not least was the information-packed talk by Justin Brigs, SEO for Bloggers.  This guy knows his stuff and he gave the audience tons of online tools for link building and content research.  He was funny, engaging and super smart.  He is only in his mid-20’s and leads the SEO and Social Media team at Big Fish Games and has worked for SEOmoz and consulted with Amazon.  It is no wonder the small room where he spoke was packed!!

Takeaways from Justin’s talk (slides here)

• Keep it Simple: Put a keyword in title and content & use WordPress.  All great starts to good SEO.
• Making “deep” content simple is easier for readers to digest and share.
• Build relationships with experts in your field: www.topsy.com is a great website to find experts to connect with.
• Being a guest blogger will help boost your traffic.  Find a community of bloggers looking for writers at www.myblogguest.com

These are just a few of the talks presented in 3 different rooms throughout the day.  I believe most were videotaped and will be available on www.Wordpress.tv in the next few weeks.

I learned tons during Wordcamp but my biggest takeaway was how amazingly supportive the WordPress community is.  WordPress seems to be endless in its capabilities and I am excited to have connected with this group who is so willing to teach, help and share their expertise in all areas of this flexible platform.  Can’t wait for Wordcamp Seattle 2013.

I don’t really know why that bothers me so much. Perhaps it’s because I feel it is in an important piece of keeping consistent branding on your site.

Most of the time it is fairly easy to change out your favicon image.  You can even just changeout the favicon.ico file in the file directory of your site through FTP.

Did that last sentence just sound Greek to you?  If so read on – there are other ways.

Most modern WordPress themes include an area to upload your favicon image into the admin theme option settings.  If not, there are  free plugins that can help.  The All in one Favicon is my favorite because you can upload a frontend, backend and an iPhone icon.  Yes that is right if someone chooses to save your website shortcut to their iPhone you can control the icon that appears.  Here is how you save a website to your iPhone. (a little tangent for amoment)

1. Go to the website you like in Safari
2. Click the Go To button on the bottom of the screen
   
3. Then select Add to Home Screen.
   
   Here is what my logo looks like on my iPhone

Some tips for creating your favicons:

Sizing:

• Website favicon = 16×16 pixels
• iPhone favicon = 57X57 pixels

File format:

• Website icon usually is saved as .ico (ex. favicon.ico) and can be uploaded directly into your file directory through FTP or in the admin area of WordPress using the plugin mentioned above or through theme settings
• All in One Favicon plugin also allows a .png (which is nice if you want a transparent background) and even an animated .gif – yes that is right you can make your logo move (but please don’t overdo it with the movement – you could scare people away)
• iPhone logo can be a .png, .jpg, or.gif

How to create this tiny favicon?

• Carefully!  Remember that this image can be very difficult to see because of its small size so you want to crop your logo carefully.  Most of the time you do not want to include words in your favicon image because it will be unreadable (a couple letters is fine). Crop the most recognizable part of your logo.  Here are some good examples:

Where to create your favicon?

• Your favorite image editor on your computer
• Online image editor (www.picmonkey.com is my new favorite)
• Or Google “favicon generator” and you will find several options, but it is probably best that you crop your logo into a square before using one of these generators.

Let me know if you have any questions or need some help creating your own favicon!

Best seen in full screen

Although I am just getting started blogging on my site, this is one post I have been aching to write even before my new website launched. Feedburner is no doubt the most popular method for emailing blog posts to subscribers. However, I think many users do not realize its potential and all the ways the service can be utilized to maximize readership and sharing. This post will take you through 5 major ways to easily optimize your Feedburner account.

I’m going to walk you through one of my client’s Feedburner’s accounts because she is really active at testing which methods work best for her readers. Keep in mind not all optimization techniques work for all types of markets. In my opinion, this is true for much of the online marketing advice out there. Sometimes generalized assumptions may not work well for your type of customers or readers. You need to experiment and test and find which method works best for your business.

(By the way, check out Barbara Bussey’s Interior Design Blog over at The Treasured Home. She has built quite a following and is becoming very well connected in the Interior Design blogging circle)

1. To Summarize or Not to Summarize?

Well, that is the question. Did you know you do not have to email your full blog post to your subscribers? This is the default setting so most Feedburner users just leave that option as is. Isn’t the point to bring more visitors to your site? Then why not entice them with an excerpt of your post and then they will have to click to read more on your site. Barbara and I tested this versus the full summary of the post and MAN oh MAN what a difference it made in the amount of comments and click throughs to her site. Here is how you do it:

Unfortunately there is no Read More –>; link that can be added, so you need to direct the reader to click on the title to continue reading the post. It’s a workaround, but it works, as long as you keep the maximum length short enough that the reader wants more and long enough that they get an idea of what the post is about. 200 characters usually works well.

What the reader sees is this – short, sweet, and wanting more. As always tell them what you want them to do next “Click on the title to continue reading the post”.

2. Add Your Logo

You may have noticed in the screen shot above The Treasured Home’s logo next to the blog title. It never hurts to keep reminding people who you are – so use that logo of yours. It is easy to add in Feedburner – just copy and paste the URL of your logo here:

3. Subject = Blog Title

This is a big one for me. It surprises me how many people just leave the default for this one. Often times Feedburner emails will have the same static subject every time which may even be the same as the sender’s name. Therefore you receive an email that reads “The Treasured Home Blog” from “The Treasured Home” once a week. If your readers see the same subject line every week, do you really think they are excited to open that email? I certainly am not. So there is a very easy automated way to change that subject line:

4. Quick Link to Comments

One of the coolest parts of Feedburner’s many options is FeedFlare or share links in the footer. Many of you may have activated those already (please do if you haven’t yet). However, I believe one of the most effective footer links in the Feedburner email is the Comments link. Right away you can see how many comments there have been on the blog post and once readers see there are comments they are more intrigued to read the post and make a comment themselves. Here is how you do that.

And this is what it looks like in an email – a quick link to the comments of that particular post.

5. Set the Time of Email Delivery

Have you ever wondered what the best time is to send emails to your subscribers? Did you know you could change the time frame in which your post emails are sent through Feedburner? Well you can and why not test it? Barbara and I did just that and found out that super early in the morning was best for her market. Even though she lives in California, many of her blog readers live in New York. Most of her comments were made in the morning so she decided to switch her sending time from 11am Pacific Time to 1-3am Pacific/4-7 am Eastern. Many of her readers (just like myself) sip a cup of coffee and grab their smart phone or iPad and read their favorite blogs first thing in the morning (my dad is still confused why I no longer read a real newspaper – but that’s another post). Almost every morning Barbara’s posts are sitting waiting her subscriber’s inboxes when they wake up. We have seen a big jump in readership and comments because of this move.

This is how it is done. I suggest testing a different time every 60 days and see if there is a difference in activity.

SOME TIPS:

1. Make sure your the time in your WordPress settings is in YOUR time zone. This will throw the delivery timing off if it isn’t.

2. Make sure when you schedule a blog that is timed BEFORE the scheduled Email Delivery time in Feedburner. (Obvious – but I goofed on this one a couple times).

3. This screen is also where you can DEACTIVATE sending emails from Feedburner all together if you still want to keep your account active but just want to stop email service.

These are only 5 ways to optimize Feedburner emails – but there are so many more (perhaps part 2 should be written soon). However, despite my enthusiasm for Feedburner’s service and its popularity, I am not crazy about how your email list is a bit trapped in their service and not easy to access to use for other purposes and the complete lack of email styling options. Did you know that Mailchimp has a blog to email service that is way more flexible and customizable? That’s what I use. Stay tuned for that blog post soon.

Do you have any questions about other options available (or not) in Feedburner emails? I am happy to help. Leave your question below

Gone are the days that sending bulk email from Outlook is common practice.  If you are a small business and sending frequent email updates to a growing email list it is best that you set up an account through one of the many email marketing services out there; such as, Constant Contact, MailChimp, iContact, Emma to name a few.

Designing good emails takes some practice and over the past couple years email creation has been a key part of my business and something that has kept me very busy.  Surprisingly, coding emails is very different from web design.  Email programs such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and especially Outlook can all render an email differently.  Not only that, email coding is a bit “old school” and precise.  Archaic (in a technological timeline) methods such as utilizing embedded tables are best when creating emails and the coding must be precise because email programs are not as forgiving with mistakes as web browsers are.

But why all the tech talk you ask?  Why should you care?  You just want to send a nice looking email and not worry about coding it.  I tell you this because knowing WHY you need to go through an email marketing service is important for many reasons.

1. Using a pre-designed template
   Most of these email services have  a large library of pre-designed email templates to choose from.  Some are better than others but with such a large selection there is no doubt that you will find one that is suitable for your business or message.  This not only saves you time in designing an email but most importantly you can feel confident these emails will work across all email clients or programs (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc).  The trickiest part about designing an email is making sure it works across all these platforms and the provided templates are tested and solid!
2. Customize the selected template
   Just because you select a template doesn’t mean you have to settle for the default color, fonts and images.  These email marketing services provide you with a template editor where you can change the style to fit your business.  The layout may look the same but you should always take it up a notch and match your look.  Mailchimp even has a button in its template editor where it can fetch the colors off your website and match them in your email template ~pretty cool!
3. List Management
   One of the best reasons to use these email services is that they manage your email list automatically.  In other words, if a reader wants to opt out of your newsletter, they click a link in your email and they are automatically removed.  You do not have to do anything.  Also there are easy integrative features with these systems where you can place a signup form on your website or on your Facebook page where readers can easily sign up for your newsletters. These opt-in forms manage these new users automatically as well.
4. Following the rules
   The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 set the first national standards for sending of commercial emails (click the link to find out what CAN-SPAM really stands for – interesting).  Some of the standards include providing a place where readers can opt-out of receiving future emails and requiring the sender’s address in the email (usually at the bottom and can be a PO Box).  Email marketing services make sure you are following these standards by adding these items automatically.  They also stay on top of the latest laws and restrictions within the email legal landscape which means you don’t have to.
5. Email Address Reputation
   Email spamming has been around ever since the birth of emails.  As you know, these spammers find clever ways to get through all the filters and protections that Email & Internet Service Providers put in place and at times the good email senders, like the majority of us, will get caught in one of those spam nets and our emails will be rejected.  This can happen quite easily when sending bulk emails without using one of these reputable email services.  If you repeatedly send bulk emails directly from your Yahoo, Gmail accounts or even through Outlook, then you could have your email address shut down by that email provider or by your own Internet Service Provider for what looks like spammy practices.  Email service providers such as Constant Contact and MailChimp are trusted within the email community and they keep a good eye on their account holders to make sure there is no funny business going on.
6. Statistics
   It’s no fun sending emails without knowing if anyone opened them.  Just like with your website, studying your email statistics is a crucial part of marketing your business.  Through these analytics you can find out which emails were read, what subject lines work best, and how many links have been clicked within your email.  Finding out this information and adjusting & tweaking emails based on these results helps you become a better email marketer by sending effective & valuable emails.  All these email services have great statistics built into their systems.  Have you checked your Gmail, Hotmail and Outlook email stats?  Oh wait, there are none.
7. It’s Free
   What better reason is there than this last one?  Most of the Email Service Providers out there offer free trials and the cost is minimal after that.  My favorite email provider is MailChimp because they allow you to have a free account forever if you have under 2000 email addresses and send less than 12,000 emails a month. Truthfully if you have a larger email list than this and are sending more than 12,000 emails a month you must be growing a pretty decent business and can afford the $30/month for the next level.  Constant Contact is fairly popular but does charge $15/month after the 60 day free trial period even for a small email list.

I hope these reasons convince you to start a free account with one of these email marketing services.  One of my passions is guiding small businesses through the gunk of technobabble, so if you feel the FEAR of starting an account with one of these services, please contact me. I can get you started, set you up with a template that is customized for your business, train you on how to use the email template editor and be there for questions after that.  Please fill out my contact form or email me at amgill@cascadevalleydesigns.com if you need some help.  I’m here for you!

I couldn’t agree more about designing websites.  It is so easy to feel overwhelmed by the choices of options to place on a site, especially on the home page.  The amount of information you want the visitor to see right away, all the great colors and fonts that you want to utilize to make your site stand out can be very exciting.  However if thrown on the page without any thought or analysis of the  first time visitor’s perspective a busy site can be detrimental and turn people away.

Recently I read a fabulous article in the web commentary section of one of my favorite publications, Website Magazine, by Linc Wonham, the Senior Editor.  The title was “Simple Is as Simple Does” and starts off by pointing out that the beloved Forest Gump was an uncomplicated man with a simplified view on life.  Eventually it brought him happiness, fortune and fame.  Designers and developers in the web community are starting to take hold of this idea that simplicity works and can be fruitful. ” Simple designs, simple colors schemes, simple typography, simple verbiage, simple navigation and simple calls to action are what work best in 2012 and beyond. But why did it take us so long to figure out?”

The truth is that it is human nature to overcomplicated things and there is evidence of this all over the web.  With the daily influx of information  & new technologies its no wonder we may feel overwhelmed and feel we must share all that we know and the resources we have found.  However when it comes to the message and look of a website, “the most successful sites going forward will be the ones that focus on functionality and usability rather than shock and awe.”

Linc Wonham provides these three guidelines for keeping web design simple:

1. View all designs from the user’s perspective:
   Hours of brainstorming sessions and creative presentations can lead a team to forget whom they are building a site for.  The users come first and always will.
2. Be a team player (and be open to criticism)
   Whether it is a CEO of a large corporation or the designer of a small business website, nobody has an easy time accepting criticism.  But if your ideas or designs are generating more negative feedback than rave reviews, it’s time to take a step back and start listening.  Show your site to friends and family that you trust will give their honest opinion.  Listen to their reactions of viewing and using your site for the first time.
3. Be consistent, but not boring
   One of the biggest mistakes brands make on the Web today is failing to remain consistent in their designs.  Oftentimes, sites are constructed and added to piece by piece and, in an effort to stay ahead of the latest trends, that consistency can be lost – hurting their brand.  In no way does maintaining a similar look and feel with regards to graphics, colors and fonts limit oneself to repetition and even blandness, but instead it helps reinforce a brand’s or company’s image.

It is difficult to peel back the layers and focus on the simple, but in the long run the time and effort placed into keeping your site design uncomplicated will invite visitors to stay longer, read more, follow your call to action and make your site successful.

Do you have any favorite sites that have a simple design and are easy to use? One of my favorites has always been Netflix.  I feel they share a great deal of information in a easy to use  layout and don’t alter things up so much  that a visitor can get confused after a change (ahem, Facebook).

The day has finally come!  My site no longer reads “coming soon…”  I think after 2 years “soon” is not quite the appropriate word to use.  But “soon” has finally arrived and I am so relieved to finally be a Web Designer with a Website.  Yes it has been a little embarrassing to not have had a website representing my business.  I am always emphasizing to anyone who will listen that a website is the base of marketing your business, whether big or small, whether representing a personal or corporate brand. A website is the spoke of your marketing wheel and many paths of online advertisement, comments, tweets, Facebook posts lead back to more information on your site.

Why oh why did it take so darn long?  3 reasons really:

1. I have been extremely busy with new requests coming in on a consistent basis and paid work comes first. This is a good thing, of course.
2. My family, which includes 2 young high spirited girls, keeps me on my toes and very busy.
3. The fear of failing…read on.

Ok the final reason needs some explanation.  Building a website for your own business is really an overwhelming task and a little scary – that’s why small businesses come to me in the first place.  Let me tell you, designing sites for other people is much easier than building one for myself.  I am just too close to my own business and quite critical of my own work.  Anyone else feel that way?

Building this site has been an emotional process as well because ideas have been running around in my head for several months about how I want this website to look and what I want it to say.  Recently there have been many incidents that have pushed me to get my site up, especially meeting the wonderful team at Ovaleye Cloud Services and working with Connie Berg on the Random Acts of Kindness of Duvall website.  They have inspired and supported me to move forward.  The process has not been easy though.  There have been several times I’ve wanted to throw in the towel due to my frustration at trying to get areas on my site to look just right when launched.  I should know better – websites are a revolving process and are constantly being tweaked.

On the other hand, I am very excited to finally have a blogging platform to discuss my ideas and a place to test some of the latest web design/development trends – something I love to research.  Also I no longer have to hesitate when handing out my cards or tell people my site is under construction.  I no longer have to hold back commenting on social media pages or blog posts as a representative of my business.  It’s time to BRING IT!

Good things are on the horizon, my friends.  Please stay tuned.  This site will constantly be changing and improving.  I encourage you to sign up for future blog posts (see sidebar) because there will be some “good stuff” to come. My ideas for blog posts range from small business online marketing advice to new advances and techniques in website functionality, from basic tutorials in WordPress to “did you know?” improvements to your site.  You may even find a few blog posts about my favorite online discoveries especially concerning kids.

Thanks to all who were patient with me over the years – those who came to my domain to find…well, not much.  My appreciation especially extends to my husband who patiently dealt with my exhaustion and helped with the kids while I got this puppy off the ground.  Ready…Set…Go!!

Shine On!

What do you think of the site so far?  Please give me your suggestions.