Entries Tagged as 'Wordpress'

Things You Should Know

There’s an infinite amount of information floating around the Internet. I have chosen a few sites to showcase, along with other information which you may find valuable too. I would like to share with you what you should know, but possibly don’t. Bare with me and continue on, to find out what you don’t know, but probably should.

ChrisHebert on TwitterJust in case you think your reading a programming language or I made a typo - let me explain. In the land of “Twitter,” a user can only communicate to another user through a Twitter client. In order to communicate with another user, the “@” symbol must be in front of the user’s name (for example @chrishebert). If this is still all Greek to you, take a peek at my previous post Do You Twitter?

Today’s WebDazzling Stars

@GirlinYourShirt on Twitter,  hosts an Internet TV show with a genius idea (wish I would have thought of it).  Girl.inyour Shirt.tv  ”introduces a daily tech start up while wearing the company swag shirt.” Wonderful diversity of ideas and trends on this site, that make you wanting to watch more. Featured on TechCrunch, among other blogs; see for yourself what your missing!

While surfing Girl.inyourShirt.tv, I found  this gem of a site TechieDiva.com. Wonderful site filled with great technology “Gizmo’s” and a female twist to boot (you know I love that part of it - being a female geek myself!).

@calebkimbrough  is from the Lost and Taken site; posting a flood of textures for free. 2008: The Year of the Texture was a dream come true for anyone sick of hunting down textures on the internet. “Lost and Taken” is a depository of copyright-free stock photographic textures that you can use however you please…whether it be for a graphic design project or as a texture in a video game you’re designing.”  Say “HI” on Twitter, or stop by and collect a few textures for yourself (I did).

@bittbox bittbox strives to offer exceptionally useful “FREE” fonts.  The site is not just full of free fonts; there are tutorials, software, news, rants, and software. Something I was not aware of as a WordPress plugin, but is free for download on bittbox ”Customize Your WordPress Login Page.”  

@thinkdesign One of my all time favorites, I even have a designated “Tab” in my browser for it - ThinkDesign has a very unique feature you can download. I would recommend ANYONE to download the WordPress Test Pack. If you are unsure what your new theme will look like, prior to making it 100% your own - this download is for you. On the other hand, if you are a designer and would like to test your site, this test pack makes life so much easier - this is also for you. “Included categories, sub-categories, pages, sub-pages, 30 test posts, tags, thumbnails via custom fields, and a “Testing the Elements” post so that you can test html elements, such as <h2>, <blockquote>, etc.” Don’t forget to look-up the free WordPress themes too.

@princesstimetoy Have you ever wanted to feel like a princess? Do you already have a princess in your home but lack the wardrobe? PrincessTimeToys has a cute array of dress up “full line of quality and educational wood toys and children’s furniture.”

Free Custom Twitter Background - Yep you heard me all right, “FREE“ @princesstimetoy is having a special if you mention this post & give some link love to her site. Small price to pay for her very professional looking back grounds. Take a look at her portfolio. The site also has a quick tutorial on How to install your backgrounds on Twitter.  

http://www.sneakysunday.com/  Very fun to play with. Try this interactive City Guide for “Restaurants, Bars & Clubs, Entertainment, and Lodging.”  I found this site by accident, and fell in love with graphics. Now you go play with it…

File Sharing

MediaFire:  Free Hosting of files, photo’s, etc. for your blog. I have noticed a growing number of blogs which permit downloads, .zip (compressed) files - are coming from this free hosting site. Thought I would pass on the love and let you decide. I did sign-up for free, however I have not utilized the service yet to give you a 100% good/bad opinion. Please comment and let me know (if you could be so kind).

Web Hosting

By no means am I getting any compensation for my posting. I am passing on information from other sources. It has come to my attention this week, MediaTemple.net has a “Grid-Service” which provides reliable, and most importantly secure service. In addition, they specialize in WordPress 1-click installs, for as little as $20.00 per mo. http://mediatemple.net/webhosting/gs/ Give me a shout and let me know what you think of their service, once you sign up.

Do You Remember Your First Love?

Cute little feature - find out who was your “First Tweet” on Twitter (I couldn’t remember that long ago, can you?) http://dcortesi.com/tools/my-first-follow/

My Secret Sites I am Addicted To:

http://designm.ag/ Designm.ag - Great design online magazine (articles & resources for designers)
http://lifehacker.com/ LifeHacker - Don’t let the name fool you “Tips and Downloads for Getting Things Done”
http://www.netmag.co.uk/ .NET Magazine from the UK. “Develop/Discover/Design” Great ideas & articles.

Pet Peeve - For Today

I just had to sneak this one in there. Aside from individuals who talk at a movie and eat with their mouth open; I dislike designer’s who do not design their site to open a new browser window, when a user clicks on a link. Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of keeping traffic on your site if a user leaves your site once they select a link? Just saying….

Just an FYI, thank you for listening… (Pssstttt - You won’t hurt my feelings if you want to “Stumble” this <wink>)

I would love to hear your comments on any information you may have found interesting and/or useful. Your voice is important, please feel free to share.

Tutorial on How to Insert Video

Many times we run across a great tutorial on YouTube, or some other informative video we would love to share with the world on our blog/website. I would like to share with you a Holiday greeting and tutorial all in the same package. Please place your cursor over the “Play” menu in the video below and select it - in order to play the video.

Embeded Video Example

HTML Code to Embed Video

This particular code will prompt the user to download Macromedia Shockwave plugin if they do not have it already installed on their computer. In addition, I have a 425 width x 344 height, which I have found to work well.

Remember to replace the <”http://yourvideonamehere.swf”> with YOUR desired website address.

<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″
width=”425″ height=”344″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/
cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0″>
<param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” />
<param name=”src” value=”http://yourvideonamehere.swf” />
<embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”344″ src=”http://yourvideonamehere.swf”
allowfullscreen=”true”>
</embed></object>

Video Tutorial

I am a visual learner. For those of you who follow in my footsteps, please view this YouTube Tutorial Video on “How to Embed YouTube Video in WordPress” by Jack Humphrey.

Taking Requests

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this tutorial helps you in the future. If there is something you would like a tutorial on, please use my “Contact” form page to submit it. I would love to hear from you!

For Hire

My services are for hire. Please use my “Contact” page and I will quickly respond.

Happy blogging…

Are You Mobile Friendly?

Statistically mobile usage is on the rise. More and more individuals are utilizing the Internet through their mobile devices and non mobile devices (iPod touch and PDA’s). How many of those are you reaching?

In today’s society most individuals are trying to cram a vast amount of information in a short period of time. The Internet is being accessed during a busy train ride to work, a bus ride to school, and often during a long car drive. For users on the go more often than not, if a website is not mobile friendly and easily maneuverable the user will leave the site and move on.

How To Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly

Wordpress makes it very easy for web designers to reap the rewards of a mobile friendly site. Simply enabled the Mobile Edition Plugin by Alex King http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition. A word of caution, as with any other plugin read the related installation instructions.

iPhone Mobile Friendly

iPhone PluginOne feature which I would like to share with you is the iPhone Wordpress plugin. It seems that the iPhone has its own separate Wordpress plugin. Recently, I installed this plugin and confirmed the functionality and flawless behavior. The website makes mention of what versions of Wordpress it is compatible with. Please research the installation for yourself and confirm your compatibility.

Is Your Site iPhone Ready?

As you can see from the iPhone screen shot, my site is mobile friendly. Download your iwphone plugin today and make your site available to a broader audiance http://iwphone.contentrobot.com/2007/07/04/iwphone-wordpress-plugin-and-theme.

The download for the iPhone plugin is about half way down the website page under “Download.” At first glace you would expect a download feature towards the top of the site, however this is not the case and just pursue down the page a bit.

Good luck with making your site mobile friendly, and please leave feedback for others who may wish to add this feature to their blog.