How to Change the Design of Your WordPress Blog

You know that you have to write great content on your WordPress blog to be successful. Plus you have discovered all the SEO tips to get you on the first page of Google. But, you want more! You want change the design of your WordPress blog.

In order to blog with WordPress like a pro your blog needs to look clear, simple, readable, presentable and elegant.

One option you would have would be to purchase a professional theme from one of the big theme sites. I would recommend Genesis from StudioPress, Elegant Themes, Thesis or WooThemes.

However, if you don't want to go that route, or even if you do, here are some how to's for tweaking your blog's design.

Locate your theme files

The files in your WordPress package that determine the look of your site are called the theme files. They are stored in your WordPress files under wp-content/themes/[theme_folder] where [theme_folder] is the name of your theme. If you're not sure what your theme is called head over to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress administration area and see which theme is activated.

Inside your theme folder there will usually be just one file that determines the look of the website. This is a file usually called style.css. You can look at it and edit it if you go Appearance > Editor in the back end.

If this file makes no sense to you at all, don't worry! Read on and all will become clear.

Use Firebug and Developer Tools There are fantastic tools available to help you re-design your blog.

If you're using Chrome you can view Developer Tools (you can also use Developer Tools in Internet Explorer but I seriously recommend that you don't use that browser). In Chrome go View > Developer > Developer Tools (Cmd/Ctrl-Opt-I). And if you're using Firefox you can use the Firebugextension.

Both these tools will open a panel in your browser that will show you all the styles pertaining to any element on your site. You can make a change in this panel and see it take effect in your browser before you decide on the change and edit the style.css. This is a fantastic way to learn CSS.

Click on the cursor (it can be an arrow or a magnifying glass), click on the element that concerns you and then the styles and style sheet that is affecting it will show up in the Developer Tools or Firebug panel. So, if you click on a subheading you may see if it is controlled by the h2 element in your main CSS file.

For example you may see that the subheads in the blog post have a font size of 25px, a line height of 30 pixels with a 10 pixel margin above and a 20 pixel margin below. And on the right hand side you can see where this is stipulated: on such and such line of a file called style.css (9 times out of 10, that's what the CSS file is called).

For example, another CSS declarations for the headings may be "clear: both;". This means that the heading will always start on a new line and clear any floated images that may be to the left or right of it.

Finally, there are some more general styles that maybe affecting the heading. For example "color: #333;" means the text color should be a dark gray. "font-weight: normal;" means the heading shouldn't be bold. There should be no padding around the heading can be denoted by "padding: 0;" and no text decoration (underlining) "text-decoration: none;".

Now, the crossed out styles are the styles that are superseded by other styles. These are general styles that would be adhered to if another style hadn't been specified. The style takes precedence because it is more specific to what we are looking at. The style of the h2 ont size declaration will be accepted as the true size of the heading rather than the body style which is too general as it applies to the whole body of the website.

By the way, this is why it's called Cascading Style Sheets, because the style declarations cascade down from general to more specific declarations.

Design rules for your WordPress blog

Now that you know how to edit the CSS of your WordPress blog, here are some basic style rules to help you on your way. But first, here's a crucial tip for editing your theme files.

Always keep a copy of everything! Just before you start editing your style.css or any file in your theme folder, please, please, please back it up. Locate the theme folder using an FTP client such as Filezilla, locate the theme folder at wp-content/themes/[theme_folder] where [theme_folder] is the name of your theme and copy the file to your computer.

So, once backed-up, tweak your styles to your hearts content! Here are some important design tips to keep in mind:

Always make sure your text is readable! Not only should you pay attention to font size but also the color of the font versus the color of the background. If you are young with perfect vision, remember not everyone is as able as you to read the small text! This text is 15 pixels in size. I try not to put body text smaller than 14 pixels. The line height (or line spacing) should be 25% greater than the font size or more. So if the font size is 15 pixels; your line height should be 19 pixels or more. If the font size is 1 em; your line height should be 1.25 em or more. Line heights are especially important for headings as many theme designers never check to see what headings look like if they go over one line. Paragraphs should have a space between them and this should not be created with a double return. The space after each paragraph should be around half the line height. So, if your line height is 20 pixels, there should be around 10 pixels between paragraphs. This is usually done with either padding or margin on the <p> tag. In the WordPress HTML editor two returns equal one in the Visual editor! Look at the tab on the top right of the WordPress text editor where you write your posts, it will either say HTML or Visual. To create a new paragraph in the HTML editor hit return twice; to create a new paragraph in the Visual editor hit return just once. To create a line break (new line with no gap) in the HTML editor hit return once; to create a line break in the Visual editor go shift-return.

Remember, make your site easy to read and you visitors will reward you!

Are You Wondering: "How Do I Create a Website With WordPress?"

Many people ask themselves "how do I create a website?" when they first decide to do business on the World Wide Web. After all, everyone knows that it is essential to own a website if you plan to do business on the Internet. Otherwise, it is impossible to reach potential consumers so that you can promote your products and/or services. The good news is that there are all kinds of ways to create a website no matter what your budget might be. One of the most cost-effective and successful ways to create a presence online is by using the WordPress platform.

So now you might be thinking "Well great, but how do I create a website with WordPress then?" and the truth of the matter is that there really is not much to it! You can always hire someone to handle all of the details for you which is of course the most expensive yet least time-consuming and labor intensive way to go about it. But setting up a WordPress website is such an easy thing to do that you can get it done all by yourself.

What Exactly is WordPress?

WordPress is an open source platform that is used by millions to create blogs, websites, and other forms of online presences on the Internet. This platform can be easily set up within your own website hosting account, especially if your service provider features a CPanel administration system for your hosting account.

The platform allows you to implement website templates to create your site and offers many features to personalize the way your website works for both you and visitors. Templates can be purchased if you are looking for a totally unique design (which is highly recommended) but no worries, these are usually pretty affordable. You can always use one of the thousands of free templates out there too, if you are comfortable with that.

Many people develop cool plug-ins to use with the WordPress platform that will help to create a unique website that will not be found anywhere else online. Once you learn how to use the administration functions of WordPress and you customize the look, feel, and function of your site, you can easily upload any content that you want your visitors to see when they find you.

Once your content is added, simply publish your site and it is ready to meet the World! There are lots of great guides, resources, and tools on the Internet that can help you to make this a positive experience from beginning to end so don't get frustrated if you find yourself stuck, just look for some help and you will find it.

Answering "How Do You Make A Website?"

There are plenty of resources online to help anyone answer the question "how do you make a website?" One of the quickest and easiest ways to set up an online presence is by using the WordPress platform. This makes a quick and simple site that is basically just a blog. The variety of themes that are available will give it a very slick and professional look. This may not be the best choice for those with extensive knowledge of coding or who need a site with more features.

One of the first questions to discuss is "how do you create a website using WordPress?" Those with some computer experience will be able to handle this part, but others will need to get help from an experienced web professional. While using the WordPress platform is not especially challenging, it does need to have a place to post content. This means having a domain and a host. There are some hosting services that offer all in one packages that handle everything for a monthly fee.

To save some money, it is not that expensive to register a domain. This is the name of the site where all the content will be posted, so this is an important step. Having a memorable name or one that is highly related to the name of the company makes the most sense. Once the domain is registered, no one else can use that name as long as the payments are kept up. The next step in learning 'how do you create a website with WordPress' is to choose a hosting service.

The hosting service saves the code for the website on their servers so visitors can view the content. This makes it a simple process to update the site with new information as well as offering an easy to navigate site for visitors. There are some special considerations for those who want to know "how do you create a website for business." It is important to keep a very clean and straightforward design to make it simple for visitors to get the information they need. Having the right links to help them make purchases will pay off in the long run.

Checking out a "how do you create a website for business tutorial" will make it a lot easier to see the exact steps that need to be taken to put the site in place the right way. There are many ways to upload content and organize it on servers, but this is a lot of work and takes time. Even those who are using a publishing program will have to invest significant time and effort and the results are sometimes unprofessional. The best solution, especially for those with limited experience, is to take advantage of the superior WordPress resources.

Reasons to Use WordPress for Website Development

There are a hundred different ways to go about creating a website for your business or for personal reasons online. However, they are not all as effective as they could be so it is important to know what you are getting in to before you commit to a specific technique or method. If you are looking for a cost-effective and easy way to create an online presence, you may want to consider using the WordPress platform.

Using WordPress for website development has quite a few benefits that you will not get when using any other option out there. Following are some of the most popular reasons people decide to use WordPress for website design over other services and products available on the market:

Affordability

While some people choose to spend money on a professional designer to set up their WordPress website for them, this is not necessary in the least. In fact, many people set up their own WordPress website without the need for a lot of startup capital at all. For the cost of a domain name and hosting account you are ready to go. Compare this to the thousands of dollars it can cost to hire a website designer for your site, and you can see the value in WordPress.

Ease of Use

Even if you choose not to implement and manage your WordPress website yourself, you will love the fact that you can easily make updates and changes without the need to know any programming or HTML. This makes it possible to set up a website from beginning to end even if you don't know anything about websites in the first place. Ease of use makes it easy to keep things fresh and updated too, which will help to attract more visitors.

Flexibility

Because of all the plug-ins that have been developed by skilled programmers out there, you can customize your WordPress website to fit your exact needs and to accommodate the most number of visitors. Whether you are creating a blog, an e-commerce site, a resource center, a membership site, or an affiliate depot, the options are virtually limitless.

Options

When it comes to WordPress for website design, you will love the thousands of templates out there that you can use to customize your site. You can even have a unique template designed for your site that nobody else has, at a rate that you just can&rsquo;t beat when you compare the service to other design options out there. You can even find some great free templates on the market if you just don't have a unique design in the budget right now. You can always change your design at a later date.

Organic Rankings and Site Speed

There are over 200 quality factors used in determining how to rank the result of a search. One of these factors is the time it takes to download a Web page. Slow page load times will cause the Ranking for a Keyword to be downgraded by the Search Engines. Slow load times may also cause a Web page to timeout and be excluded from the Search Engine index.

As network traffic increases, with no end in sight, fast load times are becoming increasingly important for SEO. If your Website is slow, don't expect to be on the first page of the Search Engine results. And this applies to all the Search Engines.

No one likes a slow Website

Most importantly, visitors react badly to a slow Website. Slow load times will result in a high bounce rate, when visitors are too impatient to wait - and a high bounce rate can negatively impact Rankings. The sales conversion rate will be low as the visitors will not stay long, if they even bother to remain at all. And of course, returning customer rates will also suffer.

A positive user-experience is important. Visitors prefer fast Websites, and impressed visitors are more likely to become customers who will spend more.

Server Processing

Some of the reasons which could cause a delay in viewing a Web Page are:

A slow database connection or lengthy database processing A slow or busy Server, with slow DNS and Connect times Excessive Server processing

Asynchronous processing can significantly reduce Server related delays

Web Page Size

The size of the files that is being downloaded can be large due to:

A large View State when using ASP.Net, especially the Menu control. Many and large sized Images Use of sound, JavaScript, Java libraries, plug-ins or Flash Large CSS style files.

Reducing Download Times

The construction of the Web Page needs to be simplified to reduce the file size.

Use Minification to reduce the size of files like CSS CSS files should be split by function, i.e. print, menu, etc - and loaded asynchronously. Use a Master file to reduce the number of file downloads. Make sure that all images are compressed optimally for the optimal image type (.tif,.gif,.jpg,.png, etc). Depending upon the composition of the image, any file type may produce the smallest size with the best quality. So try them all. Reduce the size of the image file as much as possible - but don't rely on setting the Width/Height to do so. It doesn't reduce the downloaded file size. Use Thumbnails for large images. The visitor will be quite happy to wait to see the full image detail, when they request it. The visitor will be less than happy if they have to wait before seeing anything. Ensure that all images are cached for a few weeks. Ensure that downloaded files are compressed.

Web Sites can still be attractive without having lots of graphics and fancy gimmicks. Simplicity and good performance go hand in hand.

Monitoring Page Load Times

The download speeds of all of the pages in a Website need to be regularly monitored. Each page should take less than 5 seconds to load - 3 seconds is the ideal.

Use the free and excellent performance tool from Pingdom to analyse the different components that make up a Website's download time.

Owning Your Very Own Disneyland Turnkey Website

Have you ever wanted to own your very own website but weren't quite sure what one you wanted? This is very understandable, as there are so many different types of websites to choose from. When deciding what kind of website to buy, you will want to make sure that it has a niche that many people are interested in. You will also want to be sure that it is about something that you are interested in.

How does owning a Disneyland website sound to you? Everyone in the world loves Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy and the rest of the Disney characters that we have all grown up to love. It would be real difficult to find a person that is not familiar with Disneyland or Disney characters. That is why owning a Disneyland website will be a great choice for someone who is on the hunt to buy a website. When people are familiar with what is on the website, they tend to stay. What niche is there that is more popular than Disney!

Visitors to your website will include those who may thinking about visiting Disneyland or Disney World, people who are looking to purchase some of the latest Disney merchandise, or people who are just looking to learn about some of the current Disney news and events. Tourist and Disney enthusiast will love the fact that they can visit a website that is focused on just what they love - Disney!

If you are a person who currently owns other websites, owning this Disney website will positively add to your current website ownership portfolio. For those who are just looking to break into website ownership, there could be no other better website niche to start with than Disney. No matter what type of business or line of work you are in, adding that you are the owner of a popular Disneyland website will surely benefit you. It will show your colleagues and others that you do business with that you are professional about your work and care about keeping a professional image.

You will also be able to make a little extra money from your new website. You can add popular pay-per-click ads on your site, as well as affiliate ads, you will be able to earn as much as your marketing efforts and strategies take you. There are many website owners who make a living from pay-per-click ads and affiliate ads. Others earn extra money to supplement their current income.

Where are the Website Visitors?

Picture this... You have a new Website, and you are waiting for the orders to come rolling in. After a few months, you are looking rather despondent. After six months, you are looking definitely jaded. But there are still no orders.

The Website gets only the occasional visitor. This, after all the expense of hiring a graphics artist and having a Website designer create the most delightful website. You are back to placing expensive advertisements in the local newspaper - knowing that the return will be negligible. It is of little consolation knowing that you are in the same boat as 60% of all website owners.

Is it the "Sandbox effect"? No, the Website has been up and running for some time now. Using your selected Keyword Phrases, you do a Google search to see where your website ranks amongst the millions of entries. But it cannot be found. A dark, brooding and sullen cloud of despondency settles over your head.

Well, before you give up in despair, here are some suggestions.

The First Steps

You need to find out why the Website has failed to perform and how to improve it. Don't just sit back and mope. This is time for action. For effective marketing of a Website's products or services, ongoing monitoring, evaluation and modification of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) elements are essential.

There needs to be an evaluation of what will persuade visitors to purchase your products or services. What is required is a reassessment of the target audience and consequent tailoring of all the content. This research and analysis must be continued at least until there is an improvement in the quality of visitor traffic and the consequent conversion rate.

Here is a list of the essentials that you should do:

• Define the Website's Objectives: The Website must have a defined purpose or focus, and a clear, quantifiable and achievable objective. Each page of the Website must attempt to achieve the set objective.

• Identify the Target Audience: Knowing all about your selected audience is essential. You don't want to attract visitors who will not be interested in your product or service. The Target Audience can be people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, country, etc. Each page of the website must be directed exclusively to the selected Target Audience. Without this knowledge, the marketing effort of a company can only be misdirected.

• Attract the Target Audience: The Website must appeal to the interests of the Target Audience - it must use appropriate language, style, idioms and phraseology. If not, they will either not visit the Website or else they will soon depart.

• Focus your efforts on organic SEO: Read and implement all the suggestions that you can find on SEO.

• Keywords: To get quality visitors, concentrate on Keywords that the Targeted Audience will use, not on just popular Keywords. Ask friends, neighbours and family for their ideas on how they would find your Website. Use Google Sets and the biggest thesaurus that you can find. Concentrate on Long-Tail Keyword Phrases.

• Make sure that all Titles and ALT tags are Keyword rich.

• Research the Websites of the competition: Add pages on features and information that the competition lacks. Improve on what they do have.

• Ensure consistency: People want the same look and feel on every Web page - use Master pages and CSS to achieve this.

• Keep the Website up-to-date: Remove or update old content and images. Make sure that there are no dead Links.

• Ensure fast Website download times: The time to impress visitors is limited to a few seconds. Slow pages, lengthy text or forms and confusing navigation will lose potential customers.

• Create original quality content: Being found by visitors is very much related to the number of pages of content in your website. And the content of a website must be determined by the Target Audience. Be inventive; add related subjects that will be of interest to the Target Audience.

• Create Backlinks by submitting articles of original content to website publishers.

• Submit your Website to the free Web directories, especially Alexa and dmoz, and to all the local directories.

The Next Steps

• You need statistics on the type of visitor that finds your website, and how they found your website. These statistics are essential to quantify the effect of any changes made to the website. You can use the simple approach of Statcounter or the more in-depth Google Analytics.

• You need to keep track of your Ranking for selected Keywords, which visitors are more likely to use to find your website.

You will now have the ability to quantify the problem of low visitor numbers.

And then...

Wait a while, and check the Rankings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). See if visitor numbers improve. Check which are the most popular landing pages. SEO is not a one-off event, but an ongoing process. Start from the beginning, and repeat the whole exercise. If something works - great! If it does not, try another approach. But keep trying - keep modifying and adding to the Website.

I am sure that your rankings with all the search engines will improve, slowly but surely. The cloud of despair will go - there will be happier, more optimistic days ahead. Promise!

Hire PHP Developers for Custom PHP Web Application Development Services

The latest trend prevailing in the business world is the use of PHP technology for developing web applications and dynamic websites. The PHP web development firms are offering wide variety of web solutions to help businesses improve efficiency, build credibility and earn more profits. They provide different engagement delivery models wherein PHP developers are available to work on full-time or part-time basis to provide quality PHP web application development solutions.

All the PHP based development solutions are customized as per the business requirements so as to earn maximum returns on investment. The custom application developers take a brief from the clients to identify their needs and recommend the possible solutions to leverage business potential. Many businesses have gained from PHP web solutions by streamlining their business processes and fulfilling their customers' requirements well on time.

The PHP web developers use their expertise to design, develop, customize, integrate and upgrade the websites to a level that can secure a good online position and attract more business opportunities. There are some of the advantages for businesses to consider PHP technology as their option for a secure web development:

• Use their years of experience in developing unique web applications based on PHP technology • Best choice for businesses having limited budget for web development • High-quality results by enabling clients to multi-tasking • Provides custom PHP web application development solutions • Deliver the project within a stipulated time-period • Expertise in using PHP technology for developing different solutions

The businesses that require faster web development can also hire dedicated PHP developers who work solely on a single project until it is deployed successfully to the client's site. It will not be difficult to look for a suitable company that has a dedicated PHP development team to fulfill your immediate and future business needs.

However, you need to identify your specific business needs well so that you can make the selection accordingly. Once you are working with a good team of custom web developers, you can be sure of the results out of your investment. As there is no shortage of good number of companies, you must make out a checklist that is based on your needs so that you can secure your investment on PHP development services.

When you finalize a deal, you must ensure to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the company for securing your idea and private information to spread before it hits the market successfully.

How Are Rich Internet Applications Important To Your Brand Image?

Many businesses have been reluctant in upgrading their web applications through the use of the rich architecture. Apparently, the extra expenses involved in switching professional services is the main factor that causes this hesitation to set in. And indeed, the need to switch is not always welcome in the operations of those businesses which run on stringent finances. However, a close look at the working of rich web and mobile application and you shall soon know that the approach is definitely more financial rewarding than older approaches to online marketing.

Are You Ready For The Big Picture?

Remember, the speed with rich internet applications deliver information is definitely higher than any existing application system. Among the many benefits involved in using rich internet applications is the fact that it works entirely in web. Therefore, information can be obtained from virtually anywhere across the globe. Rich internet applications cache the information before sharing it with web users, thereby, canceling out the need to send a second request to the same server, the next time a similar request in made. The high speed feature also ensures that the pages never refresh, keeping readers away from distractions like advertisements and pop-ups.

A Great Image Booster Indeed

However, when you are considering spending on their use, you need to be proficient in the main advantages that these applications have to offer to your brand image. In most cases, the use of rich internet and mobile applications improves the user experience of browsing through your products on your website, owing to the rich interface that the applications provide. Navigating through the highly defined pages becomes easy for visitors and users of traditional and mobile web, owing to the detailed design of the applications. As a result, many of the website features which would have otherwise gone unnoticed when promoted through older forms of web applications become clearly evident to users.

Also, whenever a web user clicks on the application, network traffic may reduce the speed with which he accesses the different features and chapters of the applications. With the robust architecture of rich internet applications, this factor gets taken care of. Reduced network traffic enhances the speed with which the applications perform. This, in turn, boosts your company's brand image to a great extent.

The rendering engine of rich internet applications operates from the client end, thereby, increasing the ease with which information is shared between the user and server ends. Therefore, if you really wish to boost up your brand image across online and mobile platforms, go for the use of rich internet applications and their mobile counterparts, and get the best possible market returns.

Enhancing User Experience With AJAX

Web development, in its earlier years of deployment, was simply the HTML scripts, stored at server and was processed according to the requests made by the client. Each time any information was needed to be updated on the page, it was supposed to be reloaded, conventionally. This process of start-stop-start-stop was inefficient according to the responses of various users. Even for a small amount of change, the processing of whole page needs to be performed, which imparts un-necessary load on server and was wastage of bandwidth.

To overcome this problem and optimize the network and server resource, AJAX was introduced. AJAX was easily supported and compatible with major web-browsers and provided virtually a complete solution related to network and server resources. The concept of Rich internet Application (RIA) flourished because of the introduction of this concept. AJAX is the combination of various technologies related to web development which participate in every way, to enhance user experience.

AJAX includes:

HTML and CSS, to deal with the style and display of the page and related information, JavaScript along with DOM, to create a dynamic environment for the users to access and interact with the information. The XMLHttpRequest object, which asynchronously exchange the data with the server without interfering the behavior and display of the exiting page.

AJAX, expanded as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is basically deployed in client-server based applications to minimize the processing and network resources so as to accommodate large amount of traffic on existing architecture. The key feature of this technology combo is that it keeps on updating and simultaneously processes the data on the page being accessed. However, in contrast with the traditional HTML web-page situation, it removes the necessity to reload the whole page to update the page instead; it processes and updates only the required part on the page.

Moreover, AJAX doesn't need to be installed as an application at client's side like flash. It also provides with the feedback, conformation and error messages on the same screen on which user operates. Since all the technical processes are executed in the background, the user interaction with the page is not disturbed, user keeps on working on his task.

It technically improves the efficiency of the resources and improves the user's experience as well. Small part of page update means little amount of data processing, high responsiveness and less bandwidth consumption. Since data will be processed and transferred in low time, in user's reference the page responds in no time, virtually. This is the extent to how technology advancement has improved the quality of the internet. Custom software development companies providing web applications are instrumental in this change.

How Mobile Application Development Could Improve Your Sales

As anyone who owns a smart phone can tell you, mobile applications are hugely popular at the moment and this popularity is only set to rise as time goes on. If you are in business, however, this new age of the "app" could mean big things, especially when it comes to improving your sales figures. By employing a mobile application development company to create your business's very own app, you could immediately see a boost in the performance of your brand, and here's why:

Application Appeal A well-designed app that poses functional value for its users will immediately hook downloaders in, causing them to return to the app again and again. If your app is fun, engaging and interesting - with your logo constantly visible in one of the top corners - you will be getting your brand out there in a very positive light. Efficient Applications Business apps have already begun to revolutionize the way we do business, and it is unlikely that this is going to change any time soon. Apps that focus on the needs of a business (such as database management, customer relationship management, and so on) will be of vital use to businesses whose employees are on the move. Immersive Branding One of the biggest benefits associated with mobile application development is that it provides users with an immersive experience that can only be achieved using these kinds of devices. A well-designed app should promote the best qualities of your services or products in a way that is fully immersive (or interactive). Need-based Applications It is always recommended that you look into need-based apps that will cater to a specific need of your target audience. If your business sells shoes online, for example, you could employ mobile application development services to create an international size converter or a game that encourages users to collect shoe pairs.

If you have been interested in venturing into the world of mobile apps, there is nothing stopping you from doing it sooner rather than later. By first deciding who your target audience is (such as consumers, other businesses, children and so on), then doing the relevant research into what this audience wants or needs, you are well on your way to creating an app that is going to make you a lot of money. You should also speak with an application expert to make sure that you are on the right track with your thinking.