Monday, January 2nd, 2012
It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to fall off the blogging habit. I’m not going to make any proclamations about my own habits. But since this is the second day of a new year, I think it is important to talk about the fundamental rule of blogging and owning a blog website: keep that content fresh. (I’m definitely guilty of not doing this all the time!)
It is my job to be on the Internet nearly every day. I read a LOT of blogs. I write very little since my time is consumed with others’ websites. So I may not be the one to be talking up how to make the habit easier. Merely, to focus my reader’s mind on the importance of this task.
What fresh content achieves for a site is two-fold: first, it makes the site more relevant to its readers. By narrowing the scope of the content of the site, readers readily trust the site for information. This is no small thing when you consider the proliferation of information on the internet. What makes you smaller, in this case, is what makes you more visible to your readers.
Second, search engines have programs that read your website. So they know when you are naughty and when you are nice. (Not really, morally.) The search engines like Bing, Google, and such, rely on the content of your site to make a generalization of your veracity. This sounds crude, but they have become very, very good at it. By simply taking account of keywords and their position in your content, the engines can take a snapshot of your “goals.” It sounds hokey and New-Years-ish to say goals, but they can sniff the direction that your site is taking.
Some tips on writing good content
These are some highly coveted tips, so don’t share them with your enemies or in-laws if you don’t have a good standing relationship!
- Make sure those keywords communicate the theme of the page and thereby communicate the message of the site. Simple.
- Try to cover ground that hasn’t been trod yet by focusing on keyword phrases that are less competitive on the Web. Yeah, this means some actual digging and researching. Haven’t had to do that since college, have you?
- Try to keep those keywords near the beginning of your page/title. It not only makes things easier for the reader to find, but the search engines eat it up, too.
- PERSIST! This has become my mantra for months now, since I read about some other web-folks taking the same stance. Do not be daunted by the lack of traffic. How long did it take you to find the info you are writing. If it is worth writing, then wait for your dessert and KEEP WRITING ABOUT IT!
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
I’d like to think that Google and the other big search engines actually want to give us a good chance to get our websites in the places where we want them to be, i.e. the front page of relevant searches. However, as any developer worth his/her salt will tell you, this may be as easy as selling shoes to a man with no feet.
So if you are web savvy, and have a Facebook account, and Twitter, AND you want to increase your site’s page rank – here is some good news. You have the ability to increase your page rank with your Twitter and Facebook accounts for free. Yes. FREE.
Sound corny? Well, it kinda is – you have to really want to use Facebook and Twitter. In reality, if you consider your time to be an invaluable thing, then using this method to increase your page rank (and hopefully traffic) may not really be worth the time.
Ultimately, the most important factor to building the PR (page rank) is through link building. “Backlinks” give our sites the credibility that is the “Google Juice” that we developers talk about on our coffee breaks. Twitter and Facebook are only two more small pieces of this puzzle, only giving us a couple more backlinks for credibility. But they can be strong ones if you’ve developed a following on either social network (which I’m not going to even try to touch here!)
How does this work? Begin by setting up your account with either/or both social networks. Don’t forget to add your website’s address to your profile. Then start tweeting, facebooking, socialize, socialize, socialize. And include your website’s address(es) wherever you feel it is pertinent. This is very important, too. Where the content relates is also part of the ranking. Content is going to be the hook to your audience, as well as the machines. And search engines may calculate that you are trying to trick them through spam if you do too much link dropping and not enough content/relationship building.
So, remember kids… Play nice with each other and the ‘bots will play nice with you! (And have patience!)
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Hi, here is a quick list of important Codex pages for the WordPress blogs:
For bloggers, the posts info is definitely the most important of the topics. And for beginners of WordPress, knowing about the SEO optimization of the blog will definitely be important (Intro to Blogging).
Admin Panels discusses the the use of the admin area. Not all of these panels will be seen by the bloggers, as WP restricts admin privileges at our discretion.
Pages are the static content of a WP site, and most likely require custom theme templates. You will see some code in the Pages codex. That is only for development purposes and might confuse new bloggers.
Quite a bit of the WordPress Codex is devoted to development of sites, as WordPress becomes more of a CMS. To delve more deeply into the code here are some of the most important areas for us designers and developers:
Knowing the template structure and how the Loop works are really the most important. With the help of the Template Tag index, an intelligent person can make a pretty cool, dynamic WP site quickly.
I’ll leave the thorny, weird programming to the programmers:
It is pretty easy to just write a “functions.php” file and leave it in the theme directory. Sometimes this amounts to writing a plugin, but it is probably wiser to put a plugin in the “plugins” directory, as a functions file may break over the upgrading of the site….
Rock On!!
Jeff
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Well, Web 2.0 is not dead in the sense that Web 1.0 died, like in a flaming fart bubble from ‘ol Silicon Valley.
Rather, it is no longer taking over the scene from any other type of web. Most web developers agree that it is now time to move onto to something more 3.0, now that there is a Web 2.0 standard.
For all of you out there (and this included me until not too long ago) that are worrying if you are not geeky enough to understand what Web 2.0 was all about (and still is,) then check out this great lecture from Bruce Sterling on the Rise of 3.0 and the Demise of the 2.0: What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at WebStock ’09.
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
WordPress is a great platform to create your first photoblog with, whether you need an advanced magazine format or a basic portfolio.
Below is a list of links for the broadest of topics, plugins, and themes for WP photographers.
1. basic: media library subpanel
2. shortcode
3. NextGen shortcodes
4. Grain Theme for WP
5. Yet Another Photo Blog
6. WordPress and EXIF data
As for photoblog SEO stuff: use the image file name. If your image does rank well on an image search the file name will normally be displayed below the image. So it’s a good idea to match the file name with the image. Use the ALT and TITLE attributes.
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Well, a recession can’t break down my appreciation of the finer things in life – hot coffee, a good book, and fantastic design, of course!!
So now that I can be a little less timid with my voice (ie “first person”) I can talk more about design and what it means for my business. That’s right – design is not just for personal introspection, but also for the admiring customers that would like to give us all money.
The great part of design is the freedom we have to create our websites, ads, publications, or whatever. But this is also the stickiest part. That is why a little inspiration can make the difference not only in quality but in time spent coming up with ideas.
I have a few websites that really get me going – so at the risk of giving away my best secrets (aka inspirations), I will share these with the rest of you!
(In no specific order, ’cause they’re all good!!)
COLOURLovers :: colour trends + palettes This is a fantastic resource that I was told about by a graphic designer-friend of mine. While the English spell the word ‘color’ in the old world manner, it doesn’t hurt the content of this site. And the site itself is a beautiful design. The content is essentially limited to patterns and color palettes. And maybe that is why it is so successful! The amount of inspiration here is not to be understated.
Design Observer This site is devoted to design, mostly in terms of publication, I think. But it succeeds in being really inspirational as it gives such a broad spectrum of design.
Veer Type This is a commercial site, as in you can buy things from it. But I choose to focus here on the type section as there are many sites selling stock photos/illustrations/flash/etc. But not enough sell that essential graphic element: type. This site is not all that beautiful in design, but it makes up for that weakness with type. Lots of type!
Art Crimes Graffitti is a criminal offense in many cities (most of those cities make it illegal for their own residents to just make living.) However, graffitti is an artform that has been around a lot longer than digital art. I have tremendous respect for the writers who create this art, and really make it theirs. So to all the writers out there – mad props! (If you don’t get it, you never will.)
CSS Elite Generally I try to stay away form anything with ‘elite’ in its title, but a little bit of this site is really helpful for me when trying to come up with good ideas for the 1000×800 pixels I have to work with on my website designs.
For right now, that is all that I am going to list. I do not get kickbacks for any of these sites, but for the amount of inspiration they have given me – and the amount of perspiration they have saved me – I fully recommend them to other designers out there.
Monday, August 18th, 2008
The FOUNDRY is closing its office doors. I am not taking any more clients for now.
I (Jeff Turman, digital artist for FOUNDRY) have been running this business for a little over a year now. While I will keep the business name and finish the work that I have agreed to for my last clients, I am not taking any more clients.
Needless to say, I am sad about this. The office that the FOUNDRY occupied was beautiful, and the people that I worked with were great!
But I want FOUNDRY to go in a different direction than it is currently going.
The FOUNDRY digital design studio was created to do a wide range of work, not just web design. It was originally founded to do graphic design, digital photography, 3-d, and Flash. Some might say that this is too much, and that web design was the natural course. But not so! Things have to be stirred up. The comfort zone needs to be explored and probed.
You may continue to contact us with our current contact page (http://azartfoundry.com/contact)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
WordPress relies on plugins to add functionality to its blog-based interface, both on the front and in its admin area. These plugins have to be updated occasionally, either for security or to keep working with an update of the WordPress platform. WordPress 2.5 is no exception. It needs almost everyone of its plugins updated for them to keep working correctly (and sometimes don’t work even with updates!) One of the greatest things about the newest release of the WordPress platform is the ability of WordPress to update its plugins. It has definitely made using WordPress as a CMS much easier.
To access the auto update feature, visit the “plugins” page under the “plugins” tab in the admin area. The panel will show all of the current plugins installed on your site. The plugin status (whether it is turned on or not) will be shown by being highlighted.
And now a new bar may show up underneath the plugin if it has a newer version. There are two options here, one of which is to auto-update the plugin. You will definitely want to make sure you have a back-up of your website and database before you do this. ( A good plugin for backing-up your site can be found here.)
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Because we are involved in the on-line advertising market, we thought it was important to remind all those companies that are considering cutting back on marketing that it is not wise to do so during a recession.
Who said “recession?” We did. That is correct, it is an undeniable truth that the US dollar has fallen in value, that gas prices are rising, and all of this is driving the prices of basic goods (like produce) way up.
But to cut-back on the advertising expenditures of your company will actually reduce profits. For more info about this see the following:
http://www.billetts.com/media/bulletin.asp?pressid=225
http://www.adotas.com/2008/04/report-online-booms-as-advertising-overall-slumps/
http://www.mddcpress.com/news/oct01/recession_advertising.htm
http://www.mactech.com/adsales/recession_marketing/
Basically, what all of this info (of which we only included a little) says is the trend of companies who kept their marketing aggressive during a recession pulled significantly ahead of their competition.
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Our new website has been featured on CSSelite (a great place to find inspiration for web design.) We have to thank CSSelite and all those folks who come to see our sight who are directed from them.
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Foundry design has been featured on ‘We Love WP’ at http://welovewp.com/. Take a look to find a little miniature thumbnail of our site posted there. WLWP is a site dedicated to WordPress design.
Thanks, guys. We are proud to be on your site.
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Wow, it is always easier to build then destroy than to never have destroyed at all… in our opinion. But it is not the easy route to rebuild. Especially on a foundation that we aren’t familiar with in the first place.
Tax season is over, and WordPress 2.5 (our favorite CMS and client pleaser) has increased our responsibilities. So we thought it was a perfect time to add on to our site, rebuild it and give a new backend. Subsequently we thought that we had found the answer.
Ahh. But so many more problems arise when we think that we have finished – prematurely.
Here is the list of problems that we found when we arrived at WordPress 2.5:
- The backend is not as user friendly as its forerunners. This can be changed by using some sort of admin nav plugin. The best that we have found so far has been the Planet OZH plugin. It is very stylish and easy to navigate.
- For some darn reason the PHPMyAdmin export of our local database was corrupted. This seems to be a common problem, common enough that someone built a plugin in for it. (Come on WordPress people, give us a solution!) Here is the support forum for this problem at WordPress.org.
- The gallery function in WordPress is still limited unless you are using it for a photo-blog. Fortunately the NextGen Gallery plugin has been updated for WP 2.5, so that those of us using WP for portfolios can continue to do so. Without having to learn a brand new bag.
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
Well, it is finally coming (hopefully soon, but already past its due date.) ‘It’ is the new WordPress v2.5. Does it promise to be great?
We will have to see, but for right now we can definitely say it will be different in the backend layout. The functionality may not change a lot, but it is rumored (http://www.optiniche.com/blog/) that the widget and TinyMCE areas will significantly changed. And not necessarily for the better, either.
As you can see if you go to the link above, the interface colors make it much more user friendly. And we will finally have the ability to turn off the pesky announcements in the Dashboard front page.
Yeah, let’s hope that this is a step forward for WordPress. Change can be good.
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
We are now part of the Tucson Digital Arts Community. This group is represented by the brightest stars on Tucson’s burgeoning web and graphic design scene.
I know, I know… ‘Scene’ is a word best left untouched by all but the most wanna-be ‘hipsters.’ But – hey isn’t it nice to be supported by someone once in a while? We all need a little love from our peers… or at least some constructive criticism.
Please visit this cool website to view some of the celebrities that will be frequenting our meetings. And if you are an interested digital designer, photographer, composer, whatever – then please attend one of our monthly meetings.
We mean it!
Friday, January 18th, 2008
As we shift our design emphasis from the typical corporate web sites to the newer Web 2.0, we have found that Green is becoming a popular search term. And it seems to be a popular color in general, both in style and in conversation.
What is so important about Green and its application to the web?
A definition of the context of Green web design has to begin with its association to environmentalism. The U.S. has for approximately the last twenty years been more interested in sustainable resources and practices. This is definitely in relation to the media-scape that occurred with gathering information on global climate change. Surprising statistics for oil consumption, energy crises, and statistical predictions of pending environmental doom continue to dominate news and politics around the world.
So we can safely assume that Green web design is meant to help the environment. But isn’t web design Green by nature?
Seeing as web design is still tied to print design and advertising, we need to see that the implication of any kind of advertising is generally harmful to the environment. That is to say, everybody leaves a carbon footprint, especially those of us trying to reach thousands of people at one fell swoop!
So the idea of Green web design is therefore the neutralization of the emissions that cause global warming and pollution. This is achieved in both primary ways (web creators walking, biking, car-pooling to work, cutting down energy consumption, etc.) and secondary ways by supporting green companies. We all wish we had the choice to do these things, but Green web design focuses primarily on these aspects.
Is FOUNDRY digital design Green? We wish we could say that we were, but we still have to use whatever resources are available to us to get the job done. However, we do support Green design and will hopefully be able to accept only Green clients someday.
