Your Own Domain Name

1. You can install WordPress on any domain name, and many servers now offer a 1-click install of the latest version of WordPress. It’s a completely seamless way of using the software, you just download the software from WordPress.org and they have instructions as to how to install it to your own domain name. Sha-boomy!

Saves you Money

2. Once your site is done being set up, designed and configured, you never have to pay anyone to make changes to it. Ever. Unless you want a new design or enhanced functionality, you can pretty much manage your site on your own and quit paying someone by the hour to add photos, change dates, and update your content.

3. The software to build the site is free and open source. That means that the code is available for anyone to update and improve upon, which usually means a superior product. WordPress is available online, both to use for your site as well as to maintain it. So you don’t need to purchase anything and install it.

4. You can access it from anywhere, any computer, and even make updates from your smart phone, if you wish.

5. Updates to the software versions are free, and you never need to update unless you want to. So you’re not paying for that, either!

Design

6. Many attractive WordPress themes are free, but the professional ones are gorgeous and more flexible, I find. You probably need to pay a designer to completely customize the theme to exactly what you want, but it’s relatively easy to put together a beautiful site and pay less than $100 for a theme (but the design work and configuration will cost extra, I’m sure). My favorite places to get themes currently include Woo Themes, which has excellent support for when you can’t figure out how to get something just right and ThemeForest, which has amazing, feature-rich themes for very reasonable prices.

7. Themes come with built in CSS – which means that no matter what you do to the posts and pages you’re messing with, the titles and fonts will always look the same. So if you run a site with several contributors, you can be guaranteed a streamlines, professional look no matter who’s updating. (I recently had a client who was using FrontPage, and all the pages were in different fonts depending on the contributor’s preference. Bleah.)

Flexibility

8. WordPress has about a billion plugins, making your site unique and user-friendly. Some of the plugins I’ve installed for clients recently have included:

• functionality for users to print pages
• ability for users to make the text bigger or smaller on pages (for older audiences)
• the ability to choose which language they prefer to read the site in
• showcase of featured video in a sidebar
• eBay store functionality
• Facebook “Like” button
• Constant Contact and MailChimp forms on the sidebar so people can sign up for email newsletters
• Flickr photo galleries
• moving slideshow galleries (such as the one used in my portfolio)
• Google Analytics trackers so you can see your site traffic when you login

And on and on! WordPress has so many, pretty much anything you’d ever want to do with your site is available and ready to be configured.

Social

9. I wouldn’t be a good social media consultant if I didn’t tout the need and downright demand of today’s sites to have Facebook “like” functionality as well as integration with all your social media channels. People visiting your site should easily be able to see all your social media channels – YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, all of it. There are literally tons of ways to integrate these things into WordPress, making your site THE place to connect with your organization.

SEO

10. We all want to be at the top of that Google foodchain. With WordPress’ text-centric platform, it’s very search engine friendly and many themes and plugins can enhance your site even moreso. The WordPress platform is easily crawled by search engine spiders, making your site quicker to find than your competition. WordPress encourages link building and tracking back to your site easily from other sites, and allows you to create sitemaps easily.

Are there any reasons I missed? What are some reasons YOU love WordPress? Any complaints about it?

Originally posted on our Creative Director’s new blog, Pretty and Outgoing, a blog about design and social media.

One of the first things they teach you in comedy writing class is that people won’t laugh unless you’re being authentically YOU. In other words, if I tried to get up on stage and joke about the trials and tribulations of living in the ‘hood, it wouldn’t go over well. (I’m from Frederick, MD. Do they even have a ‘hood?)  I wrote about online dating (I was single at the time,) about my ex-husband’s brief stint as a pro wrestler, about Jewish guilt, and about job interviews. I killed.

Similarly, in social media, whatever your goals are, if you aren’t the one communicating to your audience, it’s an empty sell. Many people ask me as a consultant if I’ll manage their Facebook or Twitter accounts once they’re set up, if I’ll build their community, and I always say no. If I manage their account, it becomes my account. My personality, my passions are what will go into their product or service, and no matter how enthused I am about what they do, it’ll never compare to how THEY feel about it.

Sometimes, it’s not enough to just tweet or update about what you’re reading or experiencing. People will relate to how you feel about it. People are interested in your take – because your story, your experiences, that’s what’s so interesting. That’s what will get a laugh. Tell your story in a personal way – and you’ll kill too.

Originally posted on Pretty and Outgoing, our Creative Director, Jessica’s new blog.

Her logo is meant to reflect that – both looking inward (the eye with eyelashes) as well as an abstract person celebrating achieving their goals. What do you think?

The ad to the left is an example of a design I did that should be shown as part of an article in an upcoming issue of the Signature A-List magazine.

The Original Site

The original site had great organization and lots of useful content. However, because it had so many contributors, it had a wide variety of type fonts, including inconsistent sizes and colors. The current header and navigation had a very “Web 1.0″ look – specific lines drawn between each link, boxes around side links, and smaller images. Lastly, the default setting for FrontPage is to open each new link in a new window – leaving users who are navigating through the site with upwards of 6+ new windows as they open each page.

The New Version

When I created the new version, I used WordPress and designed a calm, cool color palette that would be easily coordinated with their logo and some other bright colors for headers and subheaders. WordPress has the capabilities they were looking for – consistent stylesheets, backend that can be accessed from anywhere, and all sorts of fun functionality that they can add at any time, plus a built-in support site.

Although the site isn’t officially launched yet, this is a thumbnail of where it stands now. They are currently each working to finalize the pages they’re responsible for, and then they’ll launch the site in place of the old version.

So, what do you think?

We created a website with a flash slideshow on the homepage, so that even if prospects only saw the homepage, they would get what Watoto was all about – a creative, rewarding after school program. The site was completed just in time for Michelle to do a presentation, and with the help of the site, she said, the new school signed up with them! (We’re so happy to have helped.)

One of the most exciting things about this client was that they found us because their next door neighbor had “liked” our fan page – so they checked us out and sent us an email! But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

Click here to see the new site.

Folders - the better to organize my 200 apps, my dear.

Disclaimer: This is NOT an official advertisement for the iPhone, and I’m not getting any spiff for writing this article. Although, if I did, that would be AWESOME.

Exactly 39 days ago, I had just arrived to New York City for a college girlfriend’s wedding. I knew I had the address in my Google Maps on my iPhone, so when I got in the cab, I had the phone in my hand as I directed him on where I was staying.

Somewhere between Penn Station and my beautiful hotel, the phone left my hand.

As I went to check in at the front desk, my hand automatically went to the pocket I usually keep my phone in. Empty. I checked the back pockets. Empty. Panicked, I searched through my purse, my suitcase, and my husband’s pockets, only to realize that I had dropped it in the cab.

An hour and several frantic phone calls to the cab company later, I showed up at my friend’s wedding with the knowledge that my phone was gone for good. I was in mourning. No way to show photos of the kids, no fun apps to share with my girlfriends, I felt as if my best friend had died.

I found out from AT&T that my account had an upgrade available on June 20. It seemed like an eternity.

Think I’m over dramatizing?

I’m a person who relies very, VERY heavily on technology to organize my time, my thoughts, and my tasks. I used the iPhone to hold every stray thought I had to remember later, as well as tell me what my plans were in the future, what I should wear based on the weather, and settle arguments between me and anyone who would question me about who was in what movie.  I loved that phone.  They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, but I KNEW what I had.

And then it happened.  The announcement. Brand new iPhone. Pre-order on June 15. Sale June 24. My life would never be the same.

Cameras on both sides for making your own movies, starting YOU! Plus a new flash.

Here’s why the day I order the new iPhone is the best day of my life:

1. A forward facing camera. It’s true that unless you have another friend with the new iPhone, the video chat ability isn’t really a draw. It’s being able to shoot what you’re seeing, AND YOURSELF, from anywhere in hi-def and then upload it to YouTube, text it or email it to anyone you want right then. Being able to switch back and forth will really open up the ability for people to make their own TV shows or video promotions. And with the new iMovie app, you can make a video postcard and publish it real-time.
2. Folders. I’m a person who loves to try apps, all different and new kinds of apps. (I even have an app that tells me when the new apps are out!) Rather than organize them by screen, we’ll now be able to have folders for all the different kinds. So I can have a Games folder, a Travel apps folder, Cooking apps folder, Reading material folder, Photo enhancement apps, Drawing apps, and so on and so on. Organization galore!
3. All your emails in one spot. Speaking of organization, iPhone now has the feature of setting up more than one email, but they all come to the same inbox, allowing better organization and faster emailing.
4. 

   Multitasking - do it all - all at the same time!

   Multitasking. Double clicking the home button will allow you to check your email or texts without closing whatever other app they’re using. You can easily switch over and switch back. This also means you can listen to your music in the background, while you use other apps.

5. New retina display. The pixel density (how many pixels per inch) is so high now, the eyeball can’t differentiate individual pixels. Everything on the iPhone is going to look amazing now. Everything.
6. New camera with 5MP! The new 5 megapixel camera with LED flash turns the new iPhone into a portable camera – and one just as good as the average digital camera on the market. The older iPhone only had 3, no flash and no backlight (backside illumination sensor.) Can’t wait to take my first pics with it!
7. Personalize your home screen! All sorts of images are available for backgrounds now.

If I had never lost the 3GS, I wouldn’t be ordering a new iPhone at all. I’d wait for the early adopters to run headfirst out of the gate and test the waters for the rest of us. But this time, losing my phone and suffering for the last 39 days with an old BlackBerry 8310 will have all been worth it. And oh, how I’ve suffered.

1. Too many fonts. I think that many people feel that when they change a font, they’re calling out something different on their website. The truth is, they’re just confusing the reader as to what’s important to read and what isn’t. There are better ways to call to the reader besides adding yet another font to your site. Your site should have 2 fonts, no more than 3. You can use the same fonts in bold and italic versions, change the colors (not too many times, mind you) but don’t add too many fonts.
2. No contact information. Web readers want you to be accessible. If they visit your website just for your phone number, make it easy to find. If they want your address, make it easy to find. Simply having a contact form isn’t enough to make you accessible to your readers.
3. Not enough photos. You may have a lot to explain in text in order to educate your readers about everything they need to know when they come to your site, however, the web is very visual, and there are plenty of web “skimmers” out there. They need to be able to skim your page and get the general idea of what you do and why they would want to work with you. Using photographs with obvious subtitles will definitely help break up a sea of content.
4. Photos that are too “generic.”  Random and generic business photography isn’t helping you to sell your products and services to your customers. There are wonderful websites out there with inexpensive photography that can give your site the exact feel you’re looking for. (www.istockphoto.com is my favorite.) Why just search for “business images” and choose the first 5? Look for “financial goals” or “business collaboration” to find something that really speaks to your web readers. Dive deep into the search and come up with something meaningful that shows you know how to help your customers reach their goals – or that you have the right retail solution for them.
5. Opening new browser windows. There’s a saying in the design world that you should memorize – New site, new page. Same site, same page. You never want to open a new window with every webpage on your site – very irritating to the reader! However, on the other hand, you NEVER want to link to another site in the same window – it leads people away from your site and therefore, away from information about you.
6. Opening PDFs or downloads without warning. Anytime you’re linking to a download, always make sure the reader knows they’re about to open a document, by naming the link as such. “Click here to download a PDF of….” Etc. Nothing is worse than a “download surprise” because downloads take up space on the web reader’s hard drive, and could be saved in an unknown location. Make sure when your readers click they know what they’re getting into.
7. Explain what your site is about on the home page. Don’t assume that they’ve stumbled upon you because they’re intimately familiar with what you do. They could come from a friend’s referral, or from a Google search – so make sure they know they’re in the right place right away.
8. Try not to use music. – if you need to set a mood, do it with images. Too many people are searching on the internet at work or in a quiet environment, and your need to express your site’s mood musically should NOT override consideration for the reader.
9. Make sure your links are visible. By this I mean if something is blue, it should be linked. If something is underlined, it should be linked. Web users are trained to recognize these as “link” signs. If your site has every link in green, don’t make green headlines.
10. Have someone edit! If you’ve written the content and you’re not a writer or have writing experience, ask someone (or pay someone) to make sure there aren’t, grammar, punctuation or spelling mistakes. Nothing says “unprofessional” like poorly or incorrectly written content.

Are you ever surfing the web and get annoyed at the website? What are some of the things that annoy you?

Wisestamp Example

It’s a miracle!

Up until I found this FREE product, I always advised clients and friends NOT to put their logo in their email signature. Even though it’s attractive and conceptually a good branding idea, it usually is included in the email as an attachment, forcing the email recipients to get little attachments stored on their server every time you send an email or a response.

Introducing Wisestamp! It’s a brilliant way to incorporate your logo, your website, your social media sites, and all your contact info in a perfectly attractive, well designed signature. And is it difficult to put together? No way! It’s easy peezy, lemon squeezy. You don’t need to know any HTML code whatsoever.

You can customize it to show portfolio work, YouTube video, anything you want. It works with Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail – as well as Firefox and Chrome. IE users are out of luck, unfortunately, and it doesn’t work with Microsoft Servers.

Possible uses:

-       You can streamline signatures within your company.

-       You can show all your contacts your latest blog post – it automatically updates!

-       You can connect with people on tons of social media sites, allowing them to find you on the sites that they use, too.

If you’ve ever tried Wisestamp, what do you think? If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Check it out now!

Thanks to by buddy Rosston Meyer of Rosstamicah Design for showing me this cool product.