Why do I need a secure certificate?

I don’t know how else to start this off, so I’ll keep it simple: if your website has a login, you need a secure certificate.

Which has you asking, “what the heck is that?”.

Think of it like a lock that keeps people out of your house. It may not stop someone with a lockpick who knows what they are doing (very rare), but it means you aren’t leaving the front door unlocked for anyone that wanders by testing for unlocked front doors.

A secure certificate is used to create something called a Secure Socket Layer, or SSL. Maybe SSL sounds familiar? You may have seen SSL in action and didn’t know there was a word for it.

Look at your address bar. See this?

or this?

That means the page is not secured.

Now look at this.

The only real difference is the “s” at the end of “http”. So instead of “http”, we now have “https”, which means the page is now using SSL (Secure Socket Layer).

Sometimes, you’ll see a picture of a padlock, or the color green and a padlock, as above. What you see varies from one browser to another.

This means that information you send online is not out in the open, unencrypted, for anyone to see.

This is important when you log into your site, Facebook, your bank account, or any other site that has something you don’t want to share. SSL is very important for online shopping too. You’ll want to see the https and/or lock on any site before you enter your banking information.

Did you know there are scripts you can download that let you view people’s userids and passwords when they are unencrypted? You can find one, go to a coffee shop or airport where there is free (unencrypted) wifi and watch it go.

You may say to yourself, “but I only log in at home or in the office, so I’m safe”.

Nope.

I live in a home and I can see several neighbors’ wireless networks from my own computers. You probably can too. You definitely can if you live in an apartment. In an office building, there is still a chance that’s an issue. Not using WiFi? That doesn’t mean you’re safe either.

Secure your blog, shopping cart, wiki, forum, and whatever else you log into with SSL. Even if you sell products and have a 3rd party process the banking information (and so they provide the security) it’s still a good idea to have this as an added layer of security. This added layer of security means that when you log into your site, it’s a lot harder for someone to swipe your
administrative password and deface your site or steal customer information.

You can buy secure certificates from me or you can buy them from someone else, but just get one and get it installed. These have become so important that we’ve recently introduced them into our web design and development, and website maintenance contracts. Our contracts state that you’ll have one, whether from us or another company, but you will have one and have it correctly installed.

NOTE: When buying your certificate, it is important that you register it under either www.yourdomain.com or just yourdomain.com. Take a look at your bookmark of your site. Is it with or without the www? If you’re still not sure what to get, clients are welcome to contact us and just ask.

I have awesome clients. Really. I’m not just saying this to butter you up either. I am saying this in the most sincere way I know how: I have clients that are wonderful people. You are genuine. You are caring. You are respectful of my knowledge and experience, and that I have clients and other activities outside of working on your site.

It occurs to me that most of you don’t know that. Further, I bet you didn’t know that this Gaggle of Awesomeness didn’t happen by accident either.

You didn’t just pick me. I picked YOU.

That’s right. I don’t take every job that comes my way. I don’t take every job just because someone dangled cash or an interesting project in front of me. I choose my clients and projects on the basis of whether we’ll be a good match.

Because when it comes to making a website, it is a team effort. The team is me, the web designer/developer and you, the website owner. It is YOUR site so your input is valuable. Your feedback is necessary. We can’t make websites in a vacuum. Well, we can, but they’re a total waste of your money.

I have turned down projects. I have fired clients.

All because I learned the hard way, like many business owners, that high maintenance clients just mean you lose money. You also get a lot more gray hairs and your blood pressure goes up. You lose sleep. You get crabby and become this black hole of negativity. All because of that one nightmare client that you are bending over backwards to help. Meanwhile, they don’t know how hard you are working, how much you care, and how much money you are losing on their high-maintenance whims.

Have you been there before? Do you feel me? Look at my photo on my Facebook profile. See those gray hairs? Those were there before I had twins. Since that photo, the main things that have increased the gray hairs are the kids. I don’t get many from my clients.

If you own a business and/or are a freelancer, you may be thinking, “but I need the money!”.

Trust me, you don’t need this. You won’t get enough money to make it worthwhile. You’ll start sacrificing better paying work for the client that is easily angered. You’ll sacrifice your health for that. And if you don’t have your health, well, any money you make is going to be used to treat all your health problems. Even if you get too sick to work due to stress, that’s still lost wages.

So for these reasons, I’m picky about who I work for. From my day job, to my freelance work, I’m picky. I’m a big believer in positive work environments and work environments where people complement (and compliment!) each other. One of the many things I love about being self-employed: the option to say “no”.

“NO” is a powerful word. Try it some time. It’s quite liberating. And it gives you fewer gray hairs.

To my clients, I say: thank you. I truly appreciate you as my wonderful client. I know of no words that can convey just how much I value each of you. No words that can describe just how much I want to see you succeed.

So to all of you: thank you and good luck.

Facebook Timeline is Here: Set Yours Up Right!

Got the new Facebook timeline and have no clue what to do with it? Frustrated with it? You don’t have to be. Personally, I love it. You will too, once you discover all of the awesome things you can do with Facebook timeline.

I’ve got what you need to know to get started. While this post is primarily aimed at business, non-profit, and other pages, there are still plenty of how-to’s that apply to personal timelines.

12 Steps To Get You On Your Way

1. Don’t panic!

Take a deep breath. And look at all the goodies. They give us a lot more room to really personalize our walls. This is a good thing. From a marketing standpoint, it’s an excellent thing. Open your mind and get ready to make use of it. Businesses that survive, adapt. You can do it!

2. Update all page information

Keep it up-to-date. Fill in any blanks. Get it all in there: contact info, about the business, and all that useful stuff. You do that by looking to the top-right of your Facebook page, and using the Manage button:

3. Go over old Facebook posts

Before digging into the new timeline, go through old posts. Remove anything you don’t want.

4. Pin posts

If there is a post you always want at the top of your page, you can pin it. Just go to your timeline

• look to the top right of the post
• move your mouse so the cursor hovers over the right-hand corner
• and you’ll see a star and pencil appear.
• Click the pencil icon and you’ll see this:

Once your post is pinned, it will appear at the top of your wall. And you’ll see a yellow flag on the top-right corner. It will look similar to this:

5. Highlight posts

If there are some posts you just really want people to see, you can now highlight them. Just

• go to your timeline
• look to the top right of the post
• move your mouse so the cursor hovers over the right-hand corner
• and you’ll see a star appear.

Click the star and the post will expand across both rows. Hooray! Just remember that this will be moved further down the page as you make new posts. This is not the same as pinning a post.

6. Move, organize, re-arrange tabs and apps

While we can’t have a custom Facebook landing page on Facebook like before, you can still use apps. Those boxes underneath the cover image? Those are apps. You can also link to apps from your own website.

To use them, look at the string of apps, and click the arrow to the far right (yours may not have a number on it):

Now the row will expand. You’ll see empty boxes, with plus (+) signs. Click one. Once you add something, when you move your mouse over the app box, you’ll see a pencil. Now you have more options for what you added, including re-arranging your apps. You can also add apps by going to the Manage button at the top-right of your Facebook page.

7. Tell your organization’s story

If you look at the top right of the page, you’ll see your timeline, like this:

See the line that says Opened? Click it. Give some information there. People want to know about your and your organization. This is a good place to tell that story. Facebook gives you the ability to go back in time, before Facebook existed (if your organization has been around that long) and tell them how you came to be. Take a look at mine for an idea of what you can do. (Click the image below to enlarge it.)

8. Choose a profile picture

Haven’t updated it in a while? Now is a good time to do so. Use your logo. Use your face. Use any image (within legal defintions) that is uniquely YOU.

9. Upload a good, branded cover image

Make sure you have an image that reflects your organization. Your timeline header photo (cover image) should probably not be your logo, but that’s up to you.

For example, a landscape business may use their logo as their profile picture, and the header image could be a quality photo of a well-landscaped lawn. Remember I used the word "quality". Avoid blurry or pixelated photos. These are large and are the first things your visitors see.

Not sure what to put up? You can contact me and request a consultation or we can set up your Facebook timeline header for you. Here’s an example of a great cover image, from my husband’s site, WeaselPants Productions that is selling their new game, RedShirts:

10. Facebook Timeline Cover Image Don’ts

• No 3rd party ads: you can’t sell your Facebook header as advertising space
• Keep your ads off the cover image: you can’t run your own ads there either
• Keep your contact info out of the cover image: this includes website addresses, email, and phone
• No contests: your cover image is not to be used to promote contests
• No calls to action: "sign up now", "buy now", "tell your friends", etc.
• No price or purchase information
• No asking people to Like or Share your page

Facebook also says, "Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines."

11. Facebook Timeline Cover Image Do’s, Tips, Ideas, and Best Practices

• Use a good quality image
• Use a branded image (imagery that is in line with the look/style of your organization)
• Use photos of your products and services
• Use a tagline
• Try a quote
• You can add photographer/artist credits
• Humor can is memorable and can go a long way (for businesses: keep it professional and appropriate)

12. Know the Facebook image specs

Note: px = pixels

• Profile pic: 180px x 180px
• Cover image: 851px x 315px
• App thumbnail image: 111px x 74px

Did I miss anything? Still have questions? Want to share what you’ve done with your Facebook timeline?

Go for it!

I know, it seems like I fell off the planet. I have a number of partially written posts, and partially begun projects. The past few months have been an unending stream of sicknesses (mostly me and/or the 2-year-old twins) and family emergencies.

Also, for the past few months, I’ve worked heavily on my husband’s site (and as some of you know, my husband is my business partner at GeekArtist). I worked on a site for his new project, WeaselPants Productions, LLC which is his new tabletop game company. His background is in video game design, but he loves making tabletop (cards and board) games too. He’s a brilliant game designer with an awesome sense of humor.

This was months of work and is using a lot of updated design concepts and code, and my shiny new Thesis WordPress framework. I’d say this is the culmination of 11 years of professional web design and development experience and I worked my butt off and lost a lot of sleep to make this happen, and happen on schedule.

Check out his fabulous website, with his hilarious and brilliant new game, featuring the fabulous art of David Reddick.

He let me have pretty much free reign with the design. He wanted the asymmetrical shapes, and originally he wanted the shapes as all of the buttons in the left navigation on the website. I realized that made it entirely too busy, but we could pull them in using them as the “on” state for the navigation buttons, and tie it to the rest of the site using these shapes for other buttons, such as submit buttons on forms, “learn more”, etc. I also used his awesome logo, also created by David Reddick, throughout the site as fun delighters.

I really enjoyed the web design and development process on this site. I got the opportunity to try a few new things and a had bit more creative leeway than I typically get from more formal businesses and their websites.

So, GeekArtist’s helpful posts will return, (and I hope this one helped a bit too). Just bear with me as I get back into my routine. I do have a number of posts coming and a lot of changes are happening at GeekArtist.

And if you are just absolutely going through withdrawal…

If you ever just want to see what I’m up to when I can’t get anything posted here, sometimes I write at janiceschwarz.com and my husband writes at skippyslist.com.

Google has made another change to how its search engine works. If you own a website, it’s good to be aware that all search engines make changes like this regularly. They don’t always tell us when they’ve done it though, or what they’ve done, or what will be affected. This is one of the times they’ve told us.

If you haven’t subscribed to Google’s Official Search blog “Insider Search”, point your RSS feeds there now. (If you aren’t sure what an RSS feed, you can learn what an RSS feed is here.)

For most of you who have ads located at the upper areas of your site, this is probably not an issue. Google has made this change primarily to impact sites that are almost nothing but ads. You’ve probably seen them before: you click a search result on Google and end up on a page that has a ton of advertising and nothing looked like what Google said it was.

If you do have a site that is more advertising that useful content, or are considering it, rethink it. You’re considered a spammer by search engines. You think this is going to be fast cash, but a web page of nothing but ads is probably not going to make you a lot of money. Odds are good that to do that successfully, you’ll need more time, know-how, and money than you have to start with.

For the rest of you, if you plan to cram more advertising on your site, especially to be “above the fold,” weigh that carefully. As it is, advertising slows your site down, and page load times impact your Google rankings as well.

Also, remember that one of the points of a website is to have people come to it, stay on it (and want to be there), and come back later. If your site is too ad-heavy, website visitors may hit the back button before the page loads up. At the very least, they may decide coming back isn’t something they want to do again.

Another important thing to consider is this: just because the page loads quickly on your computer doesn’t mean it does the same for all your visitors. Some are still on dial-up. What about your smart phone visitors? Have you ever looked at your site on your phone?

So consider your ads carefully. Are you making enough off of them to warrant the number of them, the size of them, and their location? Or is it time to consider if you have other, more important goals for your site, such as selling a service or product?