Since eventually we’ll lose the original Divi editor completely, there’s no time like the present to start using the new editor. With this update the new editor has become the standard and the old editor is an option you must activate. The reason is that new features only work on the new editor. The new Divi Builder experience is reportedly 100 percent faster and contains more settings. Also, the familiar classic builder WILL eventually be removed entirely. If you really want to stay in the old editor for now it is possible to go to the Divi theme option under builder>advanced and entirely disable the New Experience. This will result in things reverting to the old editor.

If you’re game to try the new Divi editor, the main thing you need to know is that instead of the familiar three-lined “hamburger menu” to access editing you use the gear image instead. It’s second from the left on each dark gray box. That will open up your familiar text editing box. You can also double-click on the dark gray bar instead. And you can enlarge it by dragging the bottom right arrow diagonally to any size you’d like and it should retain that size throughout your pages.

If at any time you choose the top left button which says Return to Standard Editor you will get this large warning:

All content created in the Divi Builder will be lost. Previous content will be restored. Do you wish to proceed?

If you say YES you WILL lose the page content and not be able to restore it. NEVER do this. It will require a full-site restore that means losing any new content since the most recent backup!

Despite what the articles below indicate they’ve now removed the text link that said “Switch Back to Classic Divi Builder” meaning the only way is go to go to the Divi theme option under builder>advanced and entirely disable the New Experience and things go back to the old classic Divi editor.

For those who like to read lots of information, these articles from the makers of Divi give you details and images on how to work with the new editor.

https://intercom.help/elegantthemes/en/articles/2551552-wordpress-5-0-and-using-the-divi-backend-builder

https://intercom.help/elegantthemes/en/articles/2509618-the-new-divi-builder-experience

If you’d like to try the new Divi experience but not on your live site, please let me know and I’ll give you access to a sandbox site to experiment in.

2020 Best Divi Facebook Groups

The big don’t is do NOT upload images straight from your camera. They will undoubtedly be much too big both in dimension and in file size weight. And while you CAN reduce their size withing WordPress this will greatly slow down your site and annoy your visitors. So, if you do not have an image editing tool such as Photoshop what to do? Simple… use PicMonkey used to be free, easy-to-use online image editor. Or download the free Gimp to edit offline. Someone else recommended this very simple, free, online image resizer.

Here are a few guidelines for web images:

1. Choose images that help tell your story and crop to what is essential.
2. Don’t embed important text inside images.
3. Re-size the image dimensions to be roughly the size you want it to appear on your site. A general guideline is around 250-300 px wide.
4. The exception to this is if it’s an infographic or chart or some other image that viewers may want to see enlarged so they read the details.
5. Save optimized for the web which compressed the pixels so the file size is smaller. Most web images are saved as jpg files. Both png and gif files also work on the web though they have special uses (transparent backgrounds and animation). You cannot use TIFF and EPS files on the web.
6. Give your images detailed, informative file names as it helps with SEO.
7. When you add the image in WordPress be sure to add an alt tag and title words. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. You can test your content by using a text-only browser such as Lynx.
8. You’ll also choose the alignment and size when you place it. You can adjust all of this once placed by clicking the image to edit it.
9. If you’ve prepared it correctly to size you can go with full size and under Link To change from the default “media file” to NONE. That’s because you do not want your visitors to think the image is clickable only to find a copy of the image that is exactly the same size. It’s annoying.
10. The only time you select Media File is when you’re doing the exception mentioned in item 4. In that case leave it on Media File which means that when you see the inserted image you’ll have a link to the larger version of the file.

Some of you know that my husband and I live in cohousing and you may even know I’ve been working hard with a team of other volunteers to co-lead this year’s national conference. Recently we’ve launched the website (yes I designed it) and registration. Thanks to Jenna Beard Riggs, niece and Vashon Island illustrator, for designing the logo for us. This conference was last in the PNW in 2009. https://2019.cohousing.org

Happy Client Makeover

I first worked with Amanda Madorno of Roam Consulting LLC 4 websites ago. I don’t know the year, but I do know the tool I was using and it was a long time ago. I rebuilt her site twice more, then a year ago she left me. In November she returned. This month we launch her newest website in Divi. Here’s what Amanda had to say:

Sheila is a miracle-worker!  She creatively solved every website design problem we encountered and delivered results with a flexible, yet let’s-get-done attitude. She’s also just fun to work with, and has a great sense of humor that lifts your spirits when you’re wondering if it’s all going to come together. My site got done in what seemed like a very short period of time and I’m very happy with it.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• By now you’ve all heard about WordPress updating to code-name Gutenberg, now called the Block Editor. All my client sites are updated. It doesn’t look any different because I’ve implemented it to default to the Classic Editor.The Divi Builder has also changed. But note that you can manually switch between the old Classic and new. Here’s a video about all the changes and how they work in Divi.
• If you are with a non-profit or consult with non-profits this link is for you… Google Grants offering $10K in Google Ads per month!
• Demographics are dead: Welcome to the age of intent

Yes, this is the second email I’ve sent in a month. I could’ve left it until tomorrow when it’ll be November! Can you believe it? I couldn’t wait because I just discovered this year’s WordCamp schedule has a cool new feature. I was able to select which sessions I’d recommend to you my clients and friends who are mostly “users” and not designers or coders. These sessions are WHY I think you can’t go wrong spending $40 to attend this fabulous conference. There’s even lunch and swag included. Plenty of time for networking too.

This link shows all the options with my picks highlighted. The picks are just meant to inspire you and get you started. There are a lot more options to choose from. If you’d like to get an idea without clicking a link here are my picks for you:
Saturday, November 10, 2018

• 10:30 am | DIY Content Strategy by Larry Swanson
• 11:30 am | Write Right, Right NOW! The Ultimate Writing Boot Camp for Content Writers by Liz Coursen
• 1:30 pm | User Experience and Branding for WordPress sites by Jennifer McKnight
• 2:30 pm | MailChimp & WordPress Goes Together Like Peanut Butter & Bananas by Amy Hall
• 3:30 pm | What is Caching? by Zachary Brown
• 4:30 pm | Connecting the Dots: The Relationship Between WordPress, SEO, and Social Media. by Robert Nissenbaum

And if you can come back on Sunday you can learn about Gutenberg, the new editor coming soon to WordPress

• 10:00 am | Introduction to Gutenberg and the Future of WordPress editing by Grant Landram
• 11:00 am | Storytelling with Gutenberg: How to Use the New Editor to Boost Your Blog by Andrea Zoellner

Caching your WordPress website for speed

You’ve probably heard about caching at one point or another. And you can attend a full session on it at WordCamp. I wanted to mention it because I’ve just done an update for my clients. Even if you’re not hosted with me, if you have a WordPress site this is useful information in a very basic form. There are 3 kinds of caching:

1. local browser caching
2. static caching
3. dynamic caching

When you see something amiss on your own website the first thing to do is clear your own browser’s cache. Here’s a place that explains how to do that depending on your browser. You can also simply open a private or incognito browser window which never caches to see if the issue persists.

For several years I’ve included static caching using the WP Rocket plugin. This makes a static copy of your website so visitors can see it without their browser having to reach into the database to pull the information, thereby speeding things up. When you make changes you’ll see them because you’re logged in, but visitors will continue to see the cached version which is why WP Rocket prompts you to Clear Cache with changes. If you’re hosted with me you’ll see a WP Rocket tab on the top of your dashboard and in the drop down there’s a Clear Cache button.

What I’ve just added is a dynamic cache which works in conjunction with WP Rocket and further speeds your site. You may notice a speed improvement. This  cache is provided by our host SiteGround and is called SG Super Cache. You’ll now see an additional button next to WP Rocket that says Purge SG Cache. It’s configured already to Automatically flush the Dynamic cache.

You shouldn’t really have to KNOW or DO anything. But knowledge is powerful. So if you ever see something amiss on your site, you now have 3 steps you can try to see if you can fix it yourself before panicking and contacting me! 🙂

Fall Bicycle Trip

I mentioned last time that I’d be away for a bit in October. We just got back. I thought you might enjoy seeing some photos of our 7 day, 350 mile  bike ride in New England.

You may or may not have heard about Gutenberg yet. It is the code word for the next update to WordPress and specifically a dramatic overhaul to the visual editor you use when posting to your blog. It’s reportedly easy, intuitive and offers much more than the old Word-like interface allowing you to easily be more creative in your layouts. For those, like me, that manage client sites, we are thinking about how to ease the way for clients assuring that nothing will break in older themes or possibly cause older plugins to fail. It’s due to arrive in mid to late November. I’m taking a practical approach for those of you that I host and support. I’ll be installing the Classic Editor so when the update occurs there will be literally no impact. I know that Divi, the tool I’ve been designing in for the last few years will not break. But honestly I have not yet explored to determine if the older themes like Headway and Pagelines DMS will break. The bottom line is that your experience should not change at all. If you blog frequently AND want to have me activate Gutenberg when it becomes available contact me. You might need a tutorial to use at first. To read more about it and see what it offers here are a few good links:

• General Overview of Gutenberg
• Preview of Gutenberg
• Video of Gutenberg

WordCamp is back – November 10-11

For the last two years I’ve been a co-lead of the annual all-volunteer WordPress Conference called WordCamp. I also spoke at WordCamp Phoenix in February. This year’s Seattle WordCamp is coming up November 10-11 at the Washington State Convention Center. There is no better bargain. For only $40 you get two days of excellent presentations in 4 tracks and that includes lunch both days and swag. If you use WordPress this is a not-to-be-missed event. Register now! 

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• DIY Content Strategy Checklist
• Curb Cut Effect & Your Website Accessibility
• 5 Minute Marketing Makeover (video)
• Another free image tool

While we all are lazily enjoying the great weather in the Seattle area and spending most of our time outdoors, there’s a new scam hitting inboxes. I was in the first wave of those impacted. The main thing that makes this creepy is that the Sextortion Scam Uses Recipient’s Hacked Passwords which makes it all the more believable and invasive when you recognize a familiar password in the subject line!  We were lucky in that I knew better than to pay their money demands. We used it as a wake-up-call to further clean-up our passwords. Back in 2009 I wrote a newsletter article on how to Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes The tips there are still useful and we had changed most of our passwords using those tips. However, human nature is such that we don’t always do the right thing, we do the easy thing. We’ve been using the free Last Pass to manage our passwords. After this invasion of privacy I consulted with my friend and colleague Andrew Villeneuve who is a WordPress security analyst. He sent me to the Have I been PWned website  You can visit this free website where you can put in your password or your email to see if either has been compromised. When you subscribe it will alert you to future compromises. Among other claims the scam says you that they’ve injected a keystroke recorder into your computer. Andrew recommended switching to the premium tool Kaspersky and immediately run their scan to be sure. It will detect such things and can remove them, as well as including a better password manager than the free one. I found it easy to install and configure and feel much better protected now. We spend so much of our life online these days. Be careful out there and have a GREAT summer.

UPDATE:  2 Minute BBC video on this subject

In the Works

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written. That’s partly because I like to feature my new work in each issue. I haven’t launched any new websites in quite awhile. But I’m actively working to complete THREE of them. Here are screen shots of them. But I can’t share links until they’re complete. Note that the top left one is a collaboration with my niece Jenna Riggs who designed the logo. I’m co-chairing next year’s National Cohousing Conference which that website is for. So that’s how I’ll be spending a lot of my “free” time.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• Why your links should never say ‘click here‘.
• Malware information specific to WordPress
• GDPR – If you have been marketing to the EU or have clients there…
  • https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/gdpr-compliance/
  • http://blog.cybertraining365.com/2018/01/23/gdpr-compliance-non-eu-customers/
  • https://www.superoffice.com/blog/gdpr/

It was 25 years ago that I did a pro-bono print design project for this critical gun safety non-profit. I was delighted when they contacted me about needing a new website. It was a tight timeline as they’re doing a big Smart Gun Symposium in Washington DC next week. Check it out!

Nonprofit Workshop: Mission-Driven Website Planning

Speaking of nonprofits, my friend and colleague Mark Root-Wiley is offering a “Mission-Driven Website Planning” workshop for nonprofits on September 14 at the Impact Hub. This is particularly for nonprofits planning their next website, this engaging and active workshop with follow-up consulting will prepare you to build a mission-driven nonprofit website that gets results for your organization. It’s intended for nonprofit staff approaching or in the early stages of a website project and will make sure they approach the process in a strategic, mission-focused way regardless of who they work with (DIY, volunteer, consultant, agency). It’ll be a half day + one follow-up call a few weeks later. Details and tickets are available on his website.

STP (Seattle to Portland) with Major Taylor Project

As you likely know I ride a tandem bicycle with my husband Spencer. We have done many fun adventures together including 4 STPs, RAMROD in 2005, riding across the US in 2006. The last time we did STP was 2003. But this year we decided to volunteer to ride with the Major Taylor Project high school kids. Named after Marshall “Major” Taylor, the first African-American athlete to win an international sports title, MTP reaches more than 550 students annually from low-income and diverse communities in Pierce and south King Counties. What starts out each fall as an after-school bike club develops into so much more as students explore their neighborhoods, earn bikes, and eventually finish the year by riding STP.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• Mastering Facebook Ads
• 10 Things I Learned From Listening to Lewis Howes Podcast by Eileen Lonergan
• Blog Like a Boss
• Why Noone can Find your Site on Google and How to Fix It

I hope you had a lovely holiday season, as we did. I can hardly believe it’s been since September that I last wrote. I’ve made it a policy to not mix politics with work so I won’t go there. But I will say that I have hope that we will unite and be better for the challenges we are facing in the coming year. Maybe I’ll see you in the crowd January 21. My niece Jenna Riggs designed this button which is available for bulk purchase and free distribution.

New Project in the works

I’m currently working on a large project for University Congreational UCC that we hope to launch in 2-3 weeks. I cannot give you a link but I’m sharing a capture of the home page. The site includes importing 700 WordPress blog posts and incorporating Podcasts and training volunteers in various functions.

Planning for 6 week office closure

My husband and I have been accepted into a month-long meditation retreat at Spirit Rock north of San Francisco. During that time I will be 100% “unplugged”. When the retreat is over I will be heading to see my 91 year old Mom in Rhode Island. This means my last day of work will be Friday, Feb 17. My first official day back at work will be Monday, April 10. I’ll be able to catch up on emails while in RI and expect to be email responsive during that week. Please plan any work you may have in mind for before or after those dates. While I will have two backup folks in place for any critical work, they will be on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• All my client sites were just updated to include SSL for security. This is in response to Google’s latest policy where Chrome will require SSL certificates. If your site already uses SSL you’ll see a green padlock in the address bar and the address will begin with https://. If it doesn’t, you should consider updating to include it. If you have it setup but it’s yellow and not green you can learn why at Why No Padlock?
• Do you have a privacy policy on your website? This article tells why you may want one.
• Eight tips to optimize images for better search engine results from Elegant Themes.
• Ten tips for local business marketing also from Elegant Themes
• Save the date – November 4-5 will be the WordCamp. That website is not yet up but I will be co-organizing the conference again. Those who’ve attended have found it extremely useful, especially for a mere $40 for the weekend!

If you use WordPress plan on attending this amazing conference, October 29 & 30. Only $40 includes lunch and a 16GB USB drive! I have volunteered for this event for the past 5 years. This year I am co-chairing it. You don’t want to miss the great line-up of speakers. There’s something for everyone including kids! Check out the website and register today. Note: I’ll be co-organizing again in 2017. The date is already set for November 4-5.

Latest Project Launch – Sherpa Foods

I was very excited to meet my newest client, the team at Sherpa Foods. Their product line is right up my alley, natural and healthy. Sherpa Foods products are made with Tsampa (sahm’-pa), a sprouted and roasted barley that is a food staple of the Himalayan people. Coming from a successful run with Sahale Snacks these folks know what they’re doing. They already had a website on WIX but needed it upgraded to WordPress to enable the use of ScoopIt and to add several new features including e-commerce, store locator, press area & FAQ.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• If you’re with a nonprofit or work with them this site may be of interest:
  Facebook for NonProfits.
• Have you wondered if those nasty pop-ups actually work?
  This article discusses pros & cons of pop-ups.
• Social Media can transform your business
• Change in the new year…Chrome will require SSL certificates
  I’m still exploring how to handle this for my hosted clients so stay tuned.

From my last newsletter you may recall that for the past six years my husband and I have been actively involved in creating a new cohousing community on Capitol Hill. When last I wrote I said “We are fast approaching the move-in date which is tentatively looking like March 1.” After many stressful delays we have finally just moved! WHEW! For those of you who like to keep your address book up to date, my new address for visits and checks is now 1722 12th Avenue, #302, Seattle, 98122. AND…if you ever had my cellphone number it no longer exists. My office number is now also a cell which means I’m even more accessible. So you can continue to reach me at 206.726.0598.

Another new website launched

For the last couple of months I’ve been working closely with marketing colleague Virginia Felton to makeover the Church Council of Greater Seattle’s ten-year-old website. We’ve just launched it after a week of very positive user testing. The site includes a comprehensive and interactive directory and of course is mobile responsive. Check it out at: http://www.thechurchcouncil.org.

Cool Tips, Tricks & Resources

• Safely share passwords using this free site: https://pwpush.com/
• My friend and colleague Mark Root-Wiley blogs weekly. This is a convincing post about why homepage slideshows are no longer the way to go.
• Better Blogging Tips ala Dr. Seuss from Judy Dunn
• And another tip from Mark Root-Wiley on his non-profit site:
  A website is never “done.” If you haven’t reviewed your site in a while, it’s likely that something is out of date. Is your Staff page showing all current members with accurate emails? Has one of your programs shifted focus? Have you accomplished something major and not shared it with your website visitors yet? Click through your site, edit what’s out of date, and make a list of what you need to add or significantly revise. Remember though that just because something isn’t current doesn’t mean you should delete it.