Here’s how it works:

you go to twitterfeed.com, create an account, enable it to update twitter & facebook (there are other services too, but those were the only ones I use personally).

Your website’s RSS feed powers the whole thing, so it’s rather foolproof… I hope.

I’ll keep you posted!

But maybe I’m a bit of a fuddy duddy, but I insist on using a plain-jane web safe font like arial or verdana, or even MS Trebuchet for a sans serif font, and Times New Roman or Georgia for serif.

I have broken down a few times and made the first font something fancier (with a websafe second choice in the CSS obviously). This way, if you have the fancy font installed on your browser, you get the “full effect” and otherwise there is a respectable-looking plan B.

Today I went and did a little research, and I found a nice link about ‘web safe fonts’ which made me soften a tiny bit:

http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/16-gorgeous-web-safe-fonts-to-use-with-css

That said, what about choosing fonts that are most likely to display on both Mac & Windows? For that matter, what about the growing number of Linux users?!

Here is a GREAT resource – a list of most commonly installed fonts on various operating systems.

See, my instincts were right: Arial, Verdana, Georgia… Times is kind of yuk, but you know the Mac & the PC probably have it, anyway….

http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-CombinedResults.shtml

Now I’ve opened a whole new can of worms… what about those pesky Linux users?! OK – time for some field testing!

I always give my sites this kind of custom permalink:
/%postname%/

I was trying to figure out how to add posts to the slideshow without having to return to default permalinks, grab the page ID, then reconfigure the permalinks, and was losing my mind.

Then I noticed that in the Admin Panel, go to your list of pages or posts, and HOVER OVER the title.

Look wayyyyy down at the status bar of your browser which displays the hyperlink you are hovering over.

VOILA! The Page ID!!

What a miracle – highly recommend it… well, if you see screenshots above, you’ll know it’s working – right now it just says ‘Image Coming Soon’.

All they ask in return is for a footer link – nooooo problem – mine is below

When it comes to hosting, I see things a bit differently.

Here’s why I like webhostingpad.com:

• $59/year for unlimited space/bandwidth/domains/databases
• has cPanel & Fantastico (super-quick WordPress setup)
• 24/7 support by phone or email
• Their mailservers work great, that is for anyone who’s not switching to google apps anyway

I’m not going to lie, I’ve had occasion to email them about slight downtime, and there have been some bigger crashes on their servers which have left me with hours and hours of downtime, but that is rare, and all around, I feel it’s the best value out there.

Whenever I have had an issue and am feeling grumpy about webhostingpad, I just look at other hosting providers … seems if it ain’t one thing it’s another

I would love it if someone can find me a hosting company that has 100% uptime for a reasonable price, great support, cPanel, etc.

Meanwhile, webhostingpad is still my pick!

I’ve been in this business in one capacity or another (and by “this business” I mean I.T.) for about a thousand years.

I’m oldschool.

I won’t bore you with stories of how excited I was about my fast, powerful new 386 in the early 90s, but anyway, suffice it to say, “we’ve come a long way, baby”.

Nowadays, it’s truly astonishing to me what GREAT VALUE I can offer my clientele by creating a WordPress website, starting with an AWESOME studiopress.com premium theme, and then customizing it to the point where it is exactly what the client wants.

I can offer this service for $400-$500 because I do it over and over again and I am FAST (now – LOL – not in the early days).

I do remember the heady days of the dot com bubble and it used to take a team of programmers/designers MONTHS of planning meetings, research, coding, thinking, troubleshooting, etc. etc., to come up with a really perfect relational database and a bulletproof CMS (content management system) back end.

This is what I can do for that very same $400!

The future is so bright, we have to wear shades, WordPress users!

I’m an evangelist – I’m here to help.

Use WordPress, learn it, get to know the plugins, tinker with it, and you will love it for its beautiful, intelligent self.

When considering website layout, navigation, usability, pageviews, etc., it is important to remember one thing:

DUMB IT DOWN.

Yes, it’s true.

If you are actually reading this article, it’s because you are one of the few Internet users I’ve ever watched doing anything other than the following:

1) Typing URLs right into Google (LOL – I used to wonder about that on the analytics side, because I didn’t even realize that so many people use Google as the address bar), and

2) CLICKING PICTURES.

Why don’t you watch some regular users browsing the internet some time – and remember, if users can’t click the pictures on your website, then you’d better have some keen & enthusiastic readers visiting it!

With WordPress websites, you really don’t have an excuse not to use plenty of images, or videos if you prefer, because it is just so easy to add media in the CMS. Yes, I do refer to WordPress as a CMS.

In fact, I’m so lazy on both ends, I avoid reading when and where possible, and when blogging, I find it easier to embed youtube videos than images… just paste the embed code and boom (how do you like the Lupe Fiasco video? LOL!).

I’m not saying people can’t read, I’m saying they prefer to click the pictures.

I prefer to click pictures too… if I have to do too much reading, I feel like I’d better be charging hourly because it’s just soooo muchhhh worrrrkkkkk

Well, I ran into a glitch which had no easy resolution – after installing the plugin without a hitch, I received this error message when trying to access the plugin’s options in Settings:

“You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page“.

I did find an excellent, step-by step solution – THANKS ZALDS!

If you are having the same problem, check this out – it works like a charm to my amazement and delight:

“You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page” ERROR FIX

Once you get the plugin going, you might as well try this too:

Anyone who has had a website wiped out by hackers or a hosting company failure, without adequate backups knows that stinging regret.

The safe way to get a complete backup is in the backend via cPanel.  Once a week, or more frequently if you update frequently. The safest thing is to take a total backup each time you update. AND keep a couple of older ones too, just for good measure.

Here is an interesting concept: automated cPanel backups