Blog
How To Choose a WordPress Theme
If you’re starting a new website built on WordPress, you know there’s a ton of choices to make. Indeed, there’s a veritable vortex of settings and widgets to configure. But the most important choice you’ll make early on concerns your theme. This is the skin covering those settings and widgets and displaying your content. It’s the foundation of your WordPress web design, so it’s important to choose a theme that matches your marketing needs and design preferences. There are two basic layouts to pick from:...
read moreA Subtle Upgrade for Instagram
You probably didn’t notice, but Instagram released a new logo recently. Before you freak out, yes the camera icon remained intact. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, for our little rainbow camera friend made the cut, and it was only the type which was redesigned. The change was fairly subtle, which is why it went mostly unnoticed. For a designer, this is sort of a big deal, and something to get excited about. Sometimes tweaking a logo is actually more difficult than creating one from scratch, because you’ve got to...
read more3 Google Analytics Reports to Use Now
Game of Thrones is the one show I carve time out to watch live each Sunday night. It’s a sprawling fantasy epic about the people of Westeros scrambling to claim the Iron Throne. The dragons sealed the deal for me. It’s not one of those shows you can jump into mid-season and understand what’s going on. The cast list is massive and characters don’t walk around wearing name tags. Unless you start at the beginning and really concentrate on who’s who, it’s overwhelming to figure it out and make sense of...
read moreGoogle+ Redesign: Big Fat Belly Flop
Google+ was already kind of a mess. Then they redesigned it and made it even worse. The Roundpeg team has some pretty strong opinions on the redesign. Allison Why is every website now trying to Pinterest? Mashable, Etsy and now Google+ are all jumping onto a layout with big pictures arranged three or four abreast. That layout, with stories and pictures in individual pods arranged in rows, works great for Pinterest. But not every freaking site is Pinterest! Google used to be a leader, but lately all it seems to be doing is following. Copying...
read moreBlog Comments and Pingbacks Explained
A pingback is very similar to a wombat. Both are tiny and mostly harmless. And should you run across one, you may not know what to do with it. Same thing with blog comments. Unless your blog is wildly popular, you may not get even one comment in a month of posts. If you’re getting started blogging, you should know the basics of comment (and pingback) moderation for when you do see one in the wild. Here’s a quick primer on these two related kinds of blog post feedback. Pingbacks and comments are similar in principle. They’re...
read moreGetting the Right Kind of Twitter Followers
Let’s play Twitter fact or fiction for minute: you need 15,000 followers to be successful on Twitter. It’s fiction. There are social media “experts” out there who would have you believe that is a fact. Then they’ll take your money and give you 15,000 followers in return overnight! Those new 15,000 followers you got overnight aren’t following you because they’re interested in your business. Empty numbers are like empty calories – they look good and taste good, but they hurt way more than they...
read moreStop Worrying About The Fold
There’s an old rule says all website content should be placed above a mysterious, invisible line. Never to be crossed, this line marks the zone below which nobody scrolls. If you’ve done web design, you’re familiar with this dreaded territory and clients’ requests to keep it all “above the fold.” Designers sometimes fear that calls-to-action and content located below the fold will go unseen on small screens. And clients ask for calls-to-action placed high up on the page, pushed right to the top. As if users...
read moreFiguring Out AdWords
When you buy an app for your phone, you’re usually presented with a couple of options. The free version typically contains ads and fewer bells and whistles than the paid version. I always go for the free version first to make sure it’s an app I’ll use. The free version of Angry Birds is a perfect example. I got the free version thinking I’d play it once and delete it. Boy was I wrong. The game was so much fun and addictive, I blew through the levels available and got hooked enough I had to have the paid version. In the...
read moreRecipe for Success
Think of your five favorite foods. Now imagine pouring them all into a bowl and mixing them up. Unless your favorite foods are ice cream, chocolate syrup and ice cream toppings, (or you happen to be Buddy the elf) this combination probably doesn’t sound appetizing anymore, does it? That’s because all those ingredients, while delicious on their own, don’t necessarily complement each other. This same idea can be applied to design. There are many different ingredients or styles and techniques to choose from, but trying to use...
read moreConfessions of a Social Networking Junkie
My addiction to social networks started like many addictions with casual use. I created profiles on Plaxo and LinkedIn and started connecting with friends. I slowly moved on to creating my own content on Squidoo and Blogger and sharing images on Flickr. I enjoyed the interaction, and with a profile on SmallerIndiana, I discovered how social and face-to-face networking worked together. I was hooked. Profiles on FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube followed in rapid succession. Just a few minutes a day to update or check in on each of...
read more