Wow, it has been too long since I added anything here! It's been a busy year with building and growing Photography BlogSites. I was honored to be one of the speakers this last weekend at WordCamp LA where I presented a behind the scenes look at Photography BlogSites. Here are the slides from the talk. There was a lot of information spoken as the slides were shown, so if you have any interest in hearing what got left out here in the slides, let me know.
Tagged with: ‘WordPress’
WordCamp LA Slideshow – The Third WordPress
September 12, 2011
Connect WordPress to Pictage, SmugMug and ShootQ!
February 14, 2011Over the weekend I put the finishing touches on a new WordPress plugin I'm calling "Photographer Connections". It is basically a framework to connect photography related sites to WordPress sites. At launch, it has Pictage, SmugMug and Shootq built in. You can list your Pictage events, add SmugMug galleries to any page or post, and allow the Contact Form 7 plugin to send information to your ShootQ account. For developers, this was created with an easily extendable format, allowing new sites like Flickr, Picasa or any others to be added very quickly as new modules. Because this was developed for PhotographyBlogSites.com, it has some great MultiSite options as well. Super Admins of any WordPress MultiSite network will get an extra menu item, allowing them to enable or disable any module sitewide. You can find full details and instructions at the official PhotographyBlogSites page or download the latest from WordPress.org.
PhotographyBlogSites is Launched!
November 3, 2010This project started a looong time ago, when I first started working with Ellen Petty of Identity Kitchen. As we worked together on custom blogs and websites for photographers, we started brainstorming ways to make something similar available to everyone. The goal was to create Affordable, Easy-to-use, WordPress Portfolio Websites for Photographers. Our Goals We put together a long list based on what worked best with the common features we were using in our custom sites: social media integration, customization, easy-to-use backend, unlimited galleries, integration of fantastic photography tools like ShootQ, etc, etc. Like all of our custom sites they needed to be an all-in-one website AND blog, all built in WordPress and 100% HTML - no Flash. Flash sites are invisible to iPhones and create difficulties for search engines. Unfortunately, until now, Flash templates have been the only realistic option available at an affordable level. Regardless of what was used for a
Major Security Warning for Anyone Using Ad Services
April 22, 2010A client's WordPress site was recently hacked by some malware, receiving the dreaded red warning screen. You know the one where it warns that a site may harm your computer? This warning comes from your browser but is triggered by Google detecting that malware is on your site. First, this is NOT a WordPress security issue. It is all about malware being inserted by third party ad services. For my fellow WordPress folks, this is not the same issue dealt with at that hosting company that will remain unnamed. The Red Screen of Death When Google crawls a site and detects malware, they issue a warning which results in that red screen. They also add a warning within their search results right under the link to your site that says 'This site may harm your computer'. All pretty scary stuff for a visitor finding your site for the first time. So,assuming at
PhotographyBlogSites for everyone! Coming soon…
March 23, 2010Cross posted from IdentityKitchen... Now, you know how proud we are of our Search Engine Optimized, Wordpress powered, custom portfolio blogsites. What if there were an entry-level, template-driven, DIY, portfolio blogsite available? No more updating your blog at one address and your portfolio at another. No more calling your webmaster to make changes to your site, update your entire site as easily as creating a blog post. You can even customize the site to match your brand. Now, what if it was affordable to everyone and included installation and set-up? Interested? Sign up here for more information. Here's a blurry sneak peek... Some added details of my own: There are a lot of sides to this project, including some exciting resources for anyone, whether they use the new BlogSites or not... There will be an FAQ and tutorial site, complete with screencast videos for everything WordPress. There will be support forums for plugins, and technical issues. SEO Image Galleries.
New Blog Site for Identity Kitchen
February 9, 2010Over the last year or so, I have worked on some great projects with designer Ellen Petty, founder and head designer of Identity Kitchen. I was proud to most recently work on the actual Identity Kitchen site itself, which got a major overhaul for the new year. Identity Kitchen provides branding and identity design as well as custom blog and website design and I get to help turn some of those designs into working WordPress sites. I recently posted some examples of our collaborations. The new Identity Kitchen site was not just a face-lift or simple redesign but a complete rethinking of everything. By combining the formerly separate portfolio site and blog all into one WordPress installation, the content and structure of the site was improved, the search engine optimization was improved, and the backend became one place to add and edit all the content. We were also able to use
Custom WordPress Site for Stand Sound
January 15, 2010The new site for Stand Sound marks the third site in a row that I have made use of the powerful Flutter plugin for WordPress. Stand Sound is a company that offers post-production sound packages to film and tv productions and their new site needed to showcase information in ways that went beyond what the typical WordPress page is capable of. For their Projects, Personnel and Facilities pages, we needed a way to display images, information and links without being confined to the normal block of text. To accomplish this in a way that added to the design, made the information more readable and was still easy to edit from the backend, would not have been possible without the Flutter plugin, which allows you to create custom content types and then display those different content areas anywhere on the page. The Home Page The overall concept is meant to be a clean, modern
Custom WordPress Development for TeenTruthLive.com
January 14, 2010Teen Truth started as a video documentary by Horizon Intertainment, created by handing teens video cameras to get their take on school violence shortly after the Columbine massacre in '99. It has since grown into a series of documentaries and Teen Truth Live, a live motivational speaking event that has now spoken in front of millions of students across the country. Their website had been a static HTML site, difficult to update and lacking the ability to comment or interact in any way. Producers JC Pohl and Erahm Christopher asked their original designer, David Richards to update his original design and brought me on to program the site using WordPress as a backend. David's new design stayed true to the original idea and maintained the well-established brand of Teen Truth, while modernizing it, bringing some greatly improved navigation and adding some moving pieces that really bring the site to life. By
Custom WordPress Blog Development with Identity Kitchen
December 4, 2009Over the last few months, I have done several projects in partnership with the talented brand and identity designer, Ellen Petty of Identity Kitchen. It has been a great change of pace to have someone else provide the design, allowing me to focus on the programming and coding of the site. With all of our sites, we try to incorporate some level of social media interaction. Custom blogs generally get a Twitter feed with a custom design and prominent links to any other sites the client wants to feature. This could be Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. Here is a look at a few of the projects: TheUnbride.com The Unbride is a blog that covers unusual wedding ideas, from all of the different vendors, to interesting venues, etc. Building the site took a lot of advanced Customization of WordPress using different views depending on which category we are viewing. See it in action here: http://theunbride.com/ TheUnbride.com Click
Custom Photography Blog – Plum Tree Studios
November 25, 2009This is a look at the custom blog for Plum Tree Studios, a photographer from Houston Texas. Once again matching an existing portfolio site, I was pretty contained for design options. I used some screen captures of her existing site to manufacture a background that resembled the one on the site. The color scheme was set as mostly black, with the few colors from the logo as highlights for text, links, borders around images, etc. A Look At the Site Click for larger Image A Look At the New Blog Click for larger Image Details: Social Media Links Details: Custom 404 Page As I explained in the post about another site, the 404 error page is one of the most overlooked aspects of any site. A site should be able to handle when something goes wrong. If you have ever reached a site that said something like 'The Page you are looking for can not be found,"