Web Development
How Do I Make My Website More Popular?
How do I make my website really popular? I get this question a lot. There’s not a easy answer. Or at least not a quick answer. There’s lots and lots of ways to help your website gain visibility on the Internet. Some of those things will cost you money, some those things will cost you…
Read MoreCorrecting an illegal string offset error in Thesis
Some clients have been reporting an error when trying to update or create a new post with sites using an older Thesis framework. (1.8x) This can happen on servers that have upgraded their php. Newer versions of PHP (correctly) throw an error when the [‘type’] field contains a value instead of an array. The error is something…
Read MoreAdd a vCard to Your WordPress Site
Adding a vCard to your WordPress site may seem like an easy task. Unfortunately, when you try to add it as media, it is all too easy to get an error similar to: “Error saving media attachment.” This is typically because WordPress doesn’t support that file type by default. “But WHY?” you might scream. “It’s…
Read MoreWhy website forms are better than showing your email address
Question I heard that you shouldn’t post your email address on your website. Why not? And if I don’t, how can people contact me through email on my website? Answer Posting your email address on your website is going to get you a lot of spam. It’s like giving all the suppliers of junk mail…
Read MoreHow can I tell is someone's website is a CMS?
Question How can I tell if a site has a CMS (Content Managed Site) installed? I have a client that has a site and wants me to add a page to it. I have the login info, but I can’t tell if they use a CMS for changes. It doesn’t look like it is, but…
Read MoreHow do I make my old website page point to my new website page? Answer: Use a 301 redirect
Question My old website had a contact page called contact.html. My new website’s contact page is contact-us.php. If I go to the original page I get a 404 error. I heard there was a way to use the .htaccess file to fix this. Can you explain it? Answer Absolutely. It’s called a 301 Redirect and…
Read MoreCustomizing the Facebook Thumbnail and Page Title When You Share a Link from Your Website
When you share a link on Facebook, it will automatically populate the page title, description, and an image from your site based on the web site address you are sharing. What if you don’t like the way it looks and want to change something? First, see if you can edit what you want the easy…
Read MoreWhat graphic formats should I use for web and print?
Question I have an image I want to print on a brochure and put on a website. What is the best file type for each? Answer Printing — For any print job, the best file format is EPS. The next best would be a high resolution tiff — 300 dpi at the actual size it…
Read MoreWeb Design Tips for Print Designers
Many print designers are being asked to create for the web, whether they have experience in this area or not. One of the biggest challenges I see for print designers is considering the fluid nature of web design. In print design, you can control every aspect, such as the size, fonts, leading, images, borders, etc.…
Read MoreWordPress CSS: How to create an automatically evenly spaced menu
Here is a method to create a WordPress menu using CSS to keep all of the navigation items spread out and even, no matter how many navigation items you have. Create your menu using WordPress’ built in menu system. Add an extra custom link at the end of the menu with # for the URL.…
Read MoreSo You Want to be a Graphic Designer?
This week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by a student from a high school in Illinois, who was doing a research paper on jobs they might want after graduation. What kinds of things do you design? I design things related to the internet (Web sites, banners, eblasts, etc.), and just about anything on…
Read MoreThe difference between absolute and relative paths
Question We are working on a small website page that uses iframes. Part of our instructions are saying we need to use absolute paths instead of relative paths. What is the difference? Answer When using image in web pages your images don’t live inside the source code, they live as a file (jpg, gif, png,…
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