Resources

Trusted Vendors and Affiliate Links

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These are my affiliate links for the various products I use and recommend.

Dreamhost – Reasonably priced shared and VPS plans for small business websites.
Termageddon – Let someone else worry about the legalities.

Clockify – Time tracking and project team management

If you are a design client who is taking over maintenance of your website, you will likely need at least these to keep your site running. I can advise on others based on our work together.
GeneratePress Pro – Clean, fast, extensible theme. I use it for everything.

Elementor Pro – User friendly page builder.

Cleantalk – totally worth the nominal yearly fee. Stops contact form spam immediately.

My Custom CSS – Twenty Seventeen

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WordPress Help

When I was starting to learn WordPress, I sought, and got, some great advice from random strangers on the Internet on many WP topics. With a little assistance from the Inspect tool, I  was able to figure out how to customize the look of my chosen themes.

Sometimes Google would reward me with  great articles that explained how to modify standard WordPress themes to suit style requirements.

In an attempt to give back, I offer the first in a series of Custom CSS articles that I hope will empower and educate.

I learned about Twenty Seventeen at a recent WordCamp US and was looking forward to playing around with it because it has lots of new bells and whistles. As luck would have it, the very next week, a client called in need of an emergency portfolio site and Twenty Seventeen fit the bill nicely.

Among other improvements to WordPress 4.7, is the  WordPress Customizer. > Additional CSS option.  This new panel will go a long way for the DIY WordPress crowd. Twenty Seventeen allows users to customize css from the wp-admin without having to create a child theme. If you’re new to CSS but feeling brave, feel free to use the snippets below in the wp-admin > Customizer > Additional CSS panel.

I will add more clips over time and welcome you to offer any of your code clips in my (moderated) comments.

Change background color behind the site title and description

.site-branding {background: #000;}

Change color of the site title

body.has-header-image .site-title, body.has-header-video .site-title, body.has-header-image .site-title a, body.has-header-video .site-title a, h1.site-title a {color:#AAC300;}
Of course, you can use any color you want.

Change size and letter spacing of the site description

body.has-header-image .site-description, body.has-header-video .site-description {font-size: 1.3em; letter-spacing: 3px;}

Change background color of a front page section

#panel1 div.panel-content {background: #AAC300!important;}
You may need to use a code inspector to identify the correct panel number, section content is defined in the Customizer > Theme Options

Change standard body font

body, button, input, select, textarea {font-family: "Comic Sans", sans-serif;}
Just kidding about the Comic Sans, but you get the idea.

Change menu item font, width and center label

ul#top-menu.menu li {font-family: "Comic Sans", sans-serif; width: 20%; text-align: center;}

Change submenu background color

.main-navigation li li a {background-color: #123E4A!important;}

Change submenu link text hover color

.main-navigation li li a:hover {color: #B5C41E!important;}

Align bullets with left paragraph edge

entry-content ol, .entry-content ul {list-style-position: inside;}

Change footer background color and bring it on top of full page background image

.site-footer {background: #AAC300; position:relative; z-index:9999;}

Hide WordPress footer ad

.site-info a {display: none;}

Center logo on page

#masthead .wrap {text-align: center;}

Make logo larger

.custom-logo-link img, body.home.title-tagline-hidden.has-header-image .custom-logo-link img, body.home.title-tagline-hidden.has-header-video .custom-logo-link img {max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%;}

Created with TwentySeventeen

Stucker VideoStucker Video
Charon HenningCharon Henning

Placeholder Images

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When developing content, you often want to make space for an image in your page before the image is actually available. This tool allows you to create placeholder images at any size just by pasting the following into your text editor tab and adjust the numbers accordingly.

<img src="https://via.placeholder.com/150">

creates this:

https://placeholder.com/

Strategies for Creating Content

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WordPress Help

If you’re stuck on creating content for your website or marketing campaign, here are some ideas and tools that might help you get started.

  • Utilize speech to text – This handy tool is now available on most smartphones. I used Dragon Software before it became part of mobile operating systems. Speak your content thoughts into an email and send them to yourself for further editing.  bubbl-us
  • Make a content flow chart to figure out your content structure – Use a system like bubbl.us if you want to collaborate and like online drag and drop tools.
  • Talk it through – and record it. Listen to it. Do the same with friends. Walk them through your website vision and listen to their comments and suggestions. Usezoom.us to record video conversations with screen sharing.
  • Utilize existing content. You may already have useful content in your social media accounts. Look at your facebook feed and old livejournal posts and see what might be of use to your website visitors.
  • Look at other websites in your interest area to see what gets them good rankings. Put keywords into Google that are what you think people would use to find your offerings online and see what websites use advertising to get placement and which ones are organically high in the rankings.
  • Use Google’s Keyword Tool to see what people search for regularly related to your target keywords. This is a nice tool because it narrows it down to location, so you can see what users locally are searching for and tailor your writing accordingly.

The Joy of Placeholder Text

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bigger_headlineI use dummy text when creating a site while content is being developed. It can add some humor to the challenging process of content creation while also motivating feedback during the design process.

 

My favorite lorem ipsum site is MeetTheIpsums.

http://meettheipsums.com/

 

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