We created a child theme utilising the Genesis Framework to power Puddy Blog. The homepage and sidebar is fully widgetised to allow for easy customisation.

In conjunction with our design partners, NABWD, we created a highly complex new site for charitable institution in the USA. This site is a membership/networking site which allows like minded individuals sign up for an affiliate site on their domain (these affiliates have a choice of two ready made designs). The site is powered by WordPress Multisite & WP Symposium. The site features membership groups, forums and internal mail facilties (allowing members to communicate with each other via the website). Updating and adding content to the site is extremely simple – both global administrators and affiliate administrators will require limited technical skill in order to manage the site.

The design was provided by NABWD and we worked with them to program the site using WordPress Multisite

You will receive no techno jargon on their website they simply offer to make it their mission to get your site in the top ten on Google, Yahoo, Bing and MSN. In this day and age this is a tall order – especially in highly competitive keywords. As a result there are a lot of companies out there who promise to get your site but very rarely deliver. Our experience proved to be favorable. They offered us a turn-key solution. In their initial meeting they took details of our requirements and then, quite literally, made it happen. No complex jargon and no techno-babble. All at exceptional value for money. Since the site in generally relies on high traffic numbers to be successful it was essential this requirement was achieved – after a short time SEO Arbiter had boosted traffic by numbers that just could not be ignored.

For quality SEO Services from a company who deliver exactly what they promise and ensure your site ranks in the top ten of major search engines check out SEO Arbiter

We were called upon to give The Recipe Blog a complete overhaul with a darker and more up-to-date look (previous illustrative design created by us in 2011 is here).

In conjunction with our design partner, NABWD, created a Website for new lounge / discoteque opening in Delaware, USA using the wordpress platform. Features integrated news area, image gallery and an events calendar.

The Style Dragon was responsible for coding the existing NABWD PSD design into a WordPress Theme with widgetised areas.

Since I discovered the Genesis Framework many months ago the vast majority of the sites I develop use this at their core. Its powerful and exceptionally easy to use. To celebrate black friday they are offering a deal – save yourself some money and purchase Genesis Framework today.

Using the code THANKS at checkout (don’t forget that), you can save 25% off of anything you’d like at WordPress design shop, StudioPress.

1. Get the Genesis Framework for only $45.

2. Snag most Genesis / design combos for a song and save close to $20.

3. Wipe the entire shop clean and get the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package. Get Genesis plus every design they’ve made, plus every design they make in the future, and save more than $74 off the regular price and over $875 off the retail price — and that’s just the existing 43 designs!

All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you check out and you’ll save 25% on anything and everything at StudioPress.com.

This deal ends promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011. Hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

Thinking of moving webhosts – Now is the time.

Black Friday Super Sale from best host ever – Hostgator. Hosting from $2.48 per month, Reseller hosting from  $12.48 per month, VPS from $9.98 per month and dedicated servers from around $88 per month.

If you are moving from another host and are worried about transferring your site then worry no more – Hostgator will do this for you free of charge.

• - Free Domain Transfer!
• - Free File Transfers!
• - Free Database Transfers!
• - Free Script Transfers!

Over the course of the last two years I have had exceptional service and support from the Hostgator team – via live chat, their support system and via twitter. Granted there have been occasions when my sites have been down but each and every time this has occured Hostgator have been on the case almost immediately and remedied the issue. When the load of one of my clients site was exceptionally high they offered help and advice which enabled me to remedy the issue (with solutions I now operate on all my wordpress sites in order to keep them healthy, lean and ticking over well).

Support

As I have touched on above the support received has always been exceptional. The support ticket have always been responded to promptly with knowledgeable and helpful responses. I have received exceptional advice and support via the live chat system and, when needed, friendly support via twitter. They have always been on hand when required, which is as much as you require from any host.

Reliability

In all the hosts I have used over the years Hostgator has the award for reliability. There has been occasions when my sites I have been down but this has been rare and I could always trust Hostgator to address the issue as soon as aware. My previous host suffered days of downtime at a time owing to server issues – and this was the deciding factor in my move to Hostgator. Reliability is extremely important if the vast majority of your income comes from your websites!

Value for Money

With support and reliability assured you would expect to pay a premium for Hostgator but they are actually exceptionally competitive. As I have a large number of websites (both my own, friends and clients) I have a reseller account.

Reseller Plans start at just $24.95 per month – with 50GB of Disk Space and 500GB Bandwidth. For that you can host unlimited domains. They even offer your billing software free of charge (I utilise WHMCS which I think is exceptional and will, in time, be reviewed here seperately). My license came free of charge with Hostgator.

Some of my clients have their own account on Hostgator´s general web hosting and are, to date, exceptionally pleased with their level of service. Their webhosting plans start at $3.96 per month for a single site with unlimited webspace and bandwidth. Their business hosting plan for me is the most value – comes with the ability to host unlimited domains, has unlimited diskspace and bandwidth and a free private SSL and IP! – at just $10.36 per month.

If you requirements are more demanding check out their VPS Hosting from $15.95 per month and Dedicated Servers from $139 per month.

Green Credentials

• - They have invested in Texas Wind Energy to help offset server emissions
• - Climate Friendly, Wind Powered, Certified RECs (View Green Web Hosting Details)
• - HostGator purchases certified Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s)

Overall

I am as happy with Hostgator now as I was in the first few months of moving to them. They combine excellent service and hosting at a price I can afford. They are the hosts I recommend to all my design and development clients not because I am an affiliate but because I firmly believe they are the best hosting company for their sites – if I didnt I would not utilise them myself.

Working in conjunction with our partner, NABWD, we created a powerful new community site for Afric Diaspora. Features extensive members facilities including forums, group discussion areas, guest posting and an integrated blog / news facility.

Design was provided in PSD format by NABWD

Recently Studiopress expanded their existing range of child themes by opening up a marketplace where developers from around the community sell their work. All of the child themes you find there are built upon the Genesis Framework and are documented and supported by the developers themselves – although they are not produced by the Studiopress developers team they do come with their seal of approval for being top notch.

Blingless Child Theme

Blingless Child Theme

Blingless is the perfect theme for the “micro-blogger” being both light and beautifully structured.

Its has a Tumblog-style design which is immaculate but, given the skills, would be easily customisable for someone with some skill in design.

Features: 4 color styles, 3 layout options, custom background, custom header, fixed width, theme options, threaded comments

Driskill

Driskill Child Theme

The beauty of Driskill is in its minimal layout which marries timeless design with current capabilities. Not only does it look great but it is fully scalable across all viewing platform, from mobile to desktop, without any additional work. It is one of the most flexible child themes I have had the pleasure of working with – being one of the most scalable.

Features: 2 color styles, 6 layout options, custom background, custom header, featured images, fixed width, responisive design, theme options, threaded comments

More child themes to come!

The fact is however Gravity Forms is so much more than a simple contact form plugin – it has a whole bunch of features which allows you to create simple forms easily but also allows for creation of guest posting forms (guests can post to your site without having access to the wordpress admin – and the post is held for review).

Creating Forms with Gravity Forms

With its super sleek interface Gravity Forms allows you to build forms in just the manner you want them – all you have to do is select the type of field from the side menu and drag it into place before filling out the details. Its so simple I firmly believe it is accessible and userable by even the most technically challenged (obviously basic blog management skills being required). Each field you chose comes with a handy bunch of settings which you can tweak to get the field to behave just the way you want.

My personal favourites are some of the easy to set Advanced Fields – Name, Address, Date, Website specifically. They are as easy to setup as standard fields – but thanks to the highly visual setup you can get a feel for how the form will look before you even publish it on the page or post. Whats more is the fact these advanced fields come predegined for you – so no complex programming is required to create address fields

The real topping on the cake for anyone with a site which accepts guest posts are the post fields – which allow you to setup a form which will effectively allow users to make entries on your site without allowing them into your precious admin area.  All you need to do is manually approve the submission!

Setting up Conditional Form Fields

Ever wanted to add conditional elements to your wordpress forms but lacked the know how? Worry no more with Gravity Plugin.

You can create a complex and highly elegant form with very little effort – thus saving you the vast amount of time better spent elsewhere.

So, factor in the complex email notification routing, the ability to allow guests to post to your site, a whole load of other features and addons, you have an extremely powerful plugin in Gravity Forms which is infinitely more than just a contact form creator.

Pricing

The only drawback is Gravity Forms is not cheap. Pricing range from $39 for a Single Site Support License, $99 for a Multi Site Support License (total of 5 sites) to $199 for an unlimited Developer Support License.

If you are single site owner then the price of the plugin is just $39.99 which, factoring in the amount of time this plugin saves you, is really superb value for money. But if you have multiple sites, in this case more than 5 sites, you have to pull together $199 which is a steap price. I am not saying the plugin is not worthy of this price tab by any means because, in all honesty, factoring in the amount of time this could save a developer or webmaster in form creation it easily pays for itself – but some, who like to keep costs low, may think twice at that price.

Personally its a plugin I would highly recommend despite its price tag. Given the amount of time it will save you in site creation it will easily pay for itself in a very short period of time and leave you free to concentrate on the more instrinsic details of website creation.

Check out Gravity Forms for further details and save yourself time and energy in the creation of your next website project.