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Color Your Website With These Seven Tools

July 23, 2010 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment
color_wheel

One of the hardest aspects of creating a website is selecting the colors to use.

Often you’ll start with a logo or a photograph that is the jumping off point for the color scheme. But where do you go from there? This can be a real quandary.

Thankfully, the web abounds with tools that can help you select the right colors for your new website.

Here are seven tools that can help make the difficult job of choosing a website color scheme that much easier:

  • 0to255 — a simple tool that helps web designers find variations of any color; perfect for hovers, borders, gradients, and more;
  • kuler — explore, create, and share color themes;
  • Color Scheme Designer — generate color schemes;
  • ColourLovers — a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns;
  • Color Palette Generator — create a color palette to match an image;
  • Color Schemer Gallery — website ready color schemes;
  • Daily Color Scheme — a new color scheme every day.

I’ve also listed these on the Resources page of this website which I’ll be updating on a regular basis.

What are your favorite tools for selecting website colors? Leave me a comment and a link to the website.


Photo: unleashingmephotography

Filed Under: All Things Web, Resources, WordPress

Sometimes WordPress.com is "Just Right"

April 28, 2010 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment
wordpresscom logo

I’ve just completed a new website for an author who wanted to promote her book, “A Piece of Her Heart.”

Although the author wanted to be able to add new content to the site and to start a blog, she didn’t want to worry about WordPress upgrades, plugin upgrades, security, etc. — all the issues that go along with having a self-hosted WordPress site. She didn’t want a website with a lot of “bells and whistles.” By her own admission, she isn’t tech savvy. She also had a small budget for the site.

Thinking over what she needed, I realized a site on WordPress.com would be “just right” for her. The yearly costs are low — no hosting fees, just the annual fee for her domain — and because WordPress.com themes don’t require (or allow) many customization changes (unless you purchase the CSS upgrade), I was able to quickly create a website that fit her needs and her budget. Plus she will never have to worry about upgrading her software or making sure the site is secure.

It was my first time working with WordPress.com and while I was frustrated by some things — the inability to have more than one page template for instance — all-in-all it was a good experience. Most important, I think the client is happy with her site and happy to have worked with someone who listened to her — and gave her what she both wanted and needed.

There’s a belief in the world of many WordPress users and so-called “experts” that the right way to go when creating a website — the only way to go — is to use WordPress on self-hosted sites. I disagree — you should consider the needs of your client when making such a decision. WordPress.org versus WordPress.com? Sometimes WordPress.com comes out the winner.

From WordPress: WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

Filed Under: News, WordPress

Before You Change that WordPress Theme

November 2, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment
caution

This post straight from the “Do As I Say, Not As I Do Hall of Shame.”

Changing themes in WordPress is so easy. Simply install the theme, activate it, and voila! You’ve changed the look of your site.

But before you hit that “activate” link, there’s one very important thing you should do: deactivate your plugins. Your current theme may use certain plugins that conflict with the new theme you want to use. If you don’t deactivate the current plugins, when you activate the new theme, your site may completely disappear. You won’t see your login page or your admin panel or anything. If this happens, don’t panic. What you need to do is connect to your site and delete the offending plugin(s).

You can connect to your site using FTP or through an interface offered by your web hosting company. Find the proper directory — all plugins are located in the following WordPress directory:  wp-content/plugins — and delete the plugin. If you’re unsure of how to do this, or do not know how to connect to your site, contact your web hosting company and see if they can help. You can also ask for help in the WordPress forums.

Finally, if all else fails, restore your site using the back-ups you made of your database and files. This assumes, of course, that you’ve backed-up your site. You have, haven’t you?

Filed Under: WordPress

How To Tell If Your Website Has Been Hacked

July 8, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment

In my previous posting, I discussed how users who don’t upgrade to the most recent version of WordPress can leave their websites vulnerable to hacking. But all types of websites can be hacked — not just those built with WordPress.

“If you own or manage a website, you are responsible for that website’s security. Compromised websites can infect visitors with badware, and are commonly blacklisted by search engines, web browsers, and security vendors. Many legitimate websites are the targets of malicious hacking attacks, during which code linking directly to badware is inserted onto an otherwise innocent, but poorly secured, website.” (StopBadware.org)

On a regular basis, all website owners/administrators should check their sites for badware by using these tools:

Hopefully, your website will pass these diagnostic tests. However, if you do find badware, you’ll need to remove it. You can find tips for doing this at StopBadware and BadwareBusters.

WordPress users can find tips on keeping WordPress installations secure at “Hardening WordPress.”

Once you’ve removed the badware from your site, you should request a review of your website from the services that have issued warnings: Google, StopBadware, and/or SiteAdvisor. If you don’t, visitors to your website may see the following warning: “This site may hurt your computer.”

Filed Under: All Things Web, WordPress Tagged With: Google, security, web tools

One Great Reason to Upgrade WordPress

July 6, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment

If you’re using WordPress, sooner or later you’re going to log in to your site and see this horrifying message: “WordPress 2.X is available! Please update now.”

You might have a flashback to previous disasters with software upgrades (does the blue screen of death ring a bell?) and decide that your site is working just fine thank you very much, and you don’t need to upgrade.

That would be a mistake. I’m not saying you should upgrade the minute a new version of WordPress is released; I usually wait a few days to make sure all the obvious bugs are worked out before I upgrade my installations (one good way to do this is to read what others are saying or complaining about on the the WordPress forums).

But why, if your site is working properly, is it necessary to upgrade WordPress? What about security? Are you concerned about that?

Older versions of WordPress have known security issues. With each upgrade, the folks at WordPress address these problems. But the evil hackers of the world are hoping that you won’t upgrade WordPress, that you’ll keep using the same version you’ve been using for the last 18 months so they can access your blog and install malware.

Now tell me which is scarier:

  • The thought of upgrading WordPress?
  • The thought that someone can hack into your site?

Really, I sympathize because I always feel a little pang of fear before I upgrade any software. But WordPress makes it easy to upgrade with the automatic upgrade (just press the button and go!). Or you can upgrade manually, if you prefer; instructions can be found here.

However you choose to upgrade WordPress, don’t forget the most important rule of upgrading: make a backup copy of your database and your WordPress files before you upgrade. Don’t skip this step. That way, if anything goes wrong with your upgrade, you’ll be able to restore your site.

Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: security

How to Create a Favicon

June 18, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment

When you create a website, one of the things you should do before launching your site is create a favicon. A favicon is an icon that appears next to a URL in the address bar of a web browser.

To create your own favicon, follow these steps:

  1. Create the image you would like to use as your favicon using a graphics program such as Photoshop. If you don’t own a graphics program, you can use a free one such as GIMP. Because a favicon is tiny (only 16 pixels x 16 pixels), it’s important to keep the design simple.
  2. Save your design as a gif, jpeg, png, or bmp.
  3. Upload your image to one of the many favicon generators available on the Internet. I use the favicon generator at Dynamic Drive. Download the newly created favicon and make sure it is named “favicon.ico”.
  4. Upload your favicon to your website. It should be placed in the root directory of your website (do not place the favicon in an images folder).
  5. For HTML pages, place this code in the head section of each web page: <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=/favicon.ico”> — if you are using WordPress, you can find instructions on editing your page header here.

That’s all there is to it!

Sometimes you can’t see your favicon even though you’ve followed all the correct steps. If so, empty your browser cache and then refresh your page. Your favicon should appear.

Filed Under: All Things Web, WordPress Tagged With: DIY, free

Using WordPress for E-Commerce

June 12, 2009 By Regina Fried 2 Comments

In my post 8 Common Questions About Using WordPress, I wrote that you can use WordPress for e-commerce, but “if the primary purpose of your website is to sell products, you may need an e-commerce solution.” Based on some questions a reader asked, I feel the need to clarify this.

You can use WordPress for e-commerce, but WordPress is not an out-of-the-box e-commerce solution. You need a plugin to make it work. If you want to use WordPress for an online store, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Am I the type of person willing to learn new skills — in particular am I willing to read documentation and troubleshoot problems and search forums to find the answers I might need to get a WordPress e-commerce plugin to work? In other words, am I a DIYer? For the most part, WordPress plugins are free and some are better supported than others. In my forays into the WordPress plugin universe I’ve read plenty of comments from frustrated users who could not get answers to questions they had about various e-commerce plugins. If you do not want to be one of those users, investigate your options carefully because plugin support is extremely important.
  2. How big will my store be? How many products and/or services will I be selling? Plan for the future, not for the present. Does the e-commerce plugin you’re considering have the ability to handle a large inventory?
  3. Does the e-commerce plugin offer everything my store needs? What about a payment gateway and security?
  4. Do I want a site that integrates several functions — a blog, some pages, the ability to build an online community, and an online store — or do I just want a store?
  5. Is cost an issue? Silly question, I know — of course, it is. Okay, then how much of an issue? Using WordPress for e-commerce is usually less expensive than using an e-commerce solution.

If your answers to these questions reveal you to be a “do-it-yourselfer” who wants to create a site that is more than just a store, and who does not want to spend a lot of money getting a online store off the ground, then using WordPress for e-commerce may be for you.

But if your answers to these questions reveal you to be someone who just wants to sell products, wants the site up quickly, and doesn’t want to worry about how it all works, just wants it to work, then you would probably be more comfortable with an e-commerce solution. Costs for e-commerce solutions vary, but you should be able to find one that suits your budget.

Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: DIY, e-commerce

Stolen Websites: How to Protect Your Site

June 4, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment

You’ve worked hard to create your website. Now it’s available for all the world to see. Unfortunately, some people will also believe it’s available to steal. Here are some ways to protect yourself against website theft.

  1. Copyscape: use Copyscape to search for copies of your web content. If you discover someone is using your work and passing it off as their own, dive into Copyscape’s list of resources and suggestions for what to do if you discover you’ve been plagirized. Place a Copyscape banner on your website pages. This does not protect your work, but it does discourage would-be thieves.
  2. Place a copyright notice at the end of each blog posting: “Copyright [year] [your name]. All Rights Reserved. Look at the end of this posting, and you’ll see my copyright.
  3. The folks at WordPress suggest using a more-detailed copyright notice on your blog, stating what uses you will and won’t allow. I’ve placed this copyright in my sidebar. If you do not want excerpts of your work used, you can modify the notice to remove that language. This article also includes some other great ideas for protecting your work and gives suggestions on what to do if your work has been stolen.
  4. There are good suggestions in an article at Freelance Switch, including a novel use of Google Alerts: “… choose one or more phrases that are relatively unique to your work, place them in quotes and set up a Google Alert to notify you automatically when a match is found.”
  5. Use watermarks on your images. Other suggestions can be found on this posting from Web Resources Depot.

While there are no guarantees that your work won’t be stolen, taking some, or all, of these steps should help. And should the worst occur, you can follow these steps to recover your website property.

Copyright 2010 Regina Fried. All Rights Reserved.

Filed Under: All Things Web, WordPress, Writing Tagged With: blog, Google, Images, web content

Will This Drive Traffic to My Site?

May 19, 2009 By Regina Fried Leave a Comment

This is one of the most common questions clients ask me. With each revision or addition of new content, a website owner hopes s/he has finally discovered the magic formula for driving traffic to a website. Meta tags, Google sitemap submissions, links — do any of these work? And if not, what does?

I wish there was one simple answer, but alas, Sad Day (as my daughter would say), there is not. It takes work to rise above the cacophony of voices on the Internet. Since I launched my blog, I’ve been reading extensively on this subject and studying a lot of other blogs. The Internet is full of suggestions on how to promote websites and blogs — so many that if I followed all of the available advice, my fingers would never leave this keyboard. It’s difficult to separate the good advice from the bad.

I wish, before I had undertaken this task (oops! I mean labor of love), that I had read this excellent article by NY Times reporter Azadeh Ensha on this very subject. Of course, it wasn’t published then …

10 Ways to Build Traffic to Your Site

Some of these were on my To Do List and have already been accomplished, but HitTail is new to me. Oh, there is no rest for the weary.

Filed Under: All Things Web, WordPress Tagged With: attracting readers, blog, DIY

8 Common Questions About Using WordPress

May 12, 2009 By Regina Fried 1 Comment

Last week, I exchanged several emails with a woman who wanted to revise her website. She wondered if she should use WordPress to create her new site. She was hoping to do most of the work herself and, also, wanted to be able to maintain the site. What kind of site could she build using WordPress, she asked. What did she need to get started? Was it really that easy to work with? As I corresponded with her, it occurred to me that others might have the same questions.

Here, then, are answers to some common questions about using WordPress to create a website.

  1. What do I need to get started?
    1. A domain name — for example: www.mybusinessname.com.
    2. A hosting account — in simple terms, this is your website’s home. Hosting costs vary widely, starting as low as $5.00 a month. Choose a company that is reliable and offers good customer service. You want to be able to reach “a human” when you have a question or a problem.
    3. WordPress software — it’s free and available for download at WordPress.org.
    4. A WordPress theme — the theme controls the design and the functionality of your WordPress site. WordPress comes with a basic theme, but it’s pretty boring, and one of the first things most users do when working with WordPress is to change their site’s theme. You can find free themes at WordPress (others can be found by searching “free WordPress themes”), or you can purchase a professionally designed “premium” theme. A partial listing of premium WordPress themes can be found at Premium WordPress.
  2. Can I convert my current website into a WordPress site?
    There is no “conversion button” to take your current site and convert it into a WordPress site. However, you can take many elements of your existing site and use them in a WordPress site. For example, you can use the same website copy (by copying and pasting text), but you will have to “rebuild” many of the elements of your site (for instance you will need to create pages to hold your copy). If you like your current website’s structure, you can use it as a guideline when creating a WordPress site. If you want to use your current site’s design, you can hire someone to create a WordPress template that duplicates that design or you can do this yourself.
  3. Can I sell products from a WordPress site? Yes. There are several ways to do this, but if the primary purpose of your website is to sell products, you may need an e-commerce solution. Learn more here.
  4. Does WordPress work with SEO and AdSense? Yes and yes.
  5. Can I create a form to collect email addresses for my newsletter? Yes.
  6. Can I have a blog and a “regular” site? Yes.
  7. Can I have more than one blog? Yes, but each blog must have its own WordPress installation (meaning you will have multiple copies of WordPress software installed). If you will be maintaining many blogs, you might consider using WordPress MU.
  8. Is WordPress easy to use? Can I really create my own site and maintain it myself?
    Yes. But the skills required to create and maintain a WordPress site increase as the functionality of the site increases. If you want to move beyond a basic WordPress site, you are going to have to learn some new skills. Some of the things you might want to do will be easy to implement; others might be difficult. Before diving in, take a look at the WordPress Codex. If you feel comforted by what you learn, then go ahead and get started. But if what you read raises more questions than it answers, consider hiring someone to help you with this project.

Contact me if:

  • You have other questions about WordPress I haven’t answered here (you can leave a comment below and I’ll respond); or
  • You’d like my help in creating a WordPress site: (610) 935-1255 or info@rmfcommunications.com.
Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: DIY