Category Archives: WordPress Websites
Websites: Is It Time to Hire a Professional?
By Jennifer Cote
Guest Columnist
I had to ask myself that question. I’d been creating my own websites for years. My husband and I had opened a small local café in 1985; by 2004, it seemed fitting to create a business website for it.
When I published a cookbook in 2006, I created another website to share recipes (and hopefully, attract an interested market). I learned enough HTML to create a decent, though limited, website. I could not easily construct a blog on my website, so I created a number of separate blogs, using free services such as Blogger, WordPress, Yahoo.
I wasn’t sure of my “brand,” so I tried to be everything. It was exhausting. read more >
Portrait vs. Landscape Website Orientation: Which is the Best Choice?
This is a guest post by Celina Conner. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.
Apart from the navigation design, background theme and the like, did you know that your website’s design orientation also affects user experience?
Yes, that’s right. In this article, we will discuss how your site’s design orientation compliments or negatively affects viewers’ behavior.
Landscape Orientation
Because there are limits to how “tall” websites call be, landscape orientation is preferred by some users. This is to make the text appear shorter when, in fact, it is composed with the same number of words. One disadvantage seen though is that users will be required to scroll horizontally. This is often seen as poor usability. read more >
How to Protect Your Computer in Case of Disaster, Plus 6 More Excellent Tutorials
In this week’s roundup of the most helpful blog posts from around the web, you’ll find links to 7 excellent tutorials about website security, search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing, and website essentials. Click on each headline to access the full article.
- How to protect your computer and data in case disaster strikes
- 10 steps to a secure WordPress website
- A breakdown of all your website’s traffic sources
- How to use your domain name with Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail
- How to make your email open and click-through rates skyrocket
- How to speed up your WordPress site
- What you need to know to pair fonts well
- 12 must-have free fonts you should have in your collection
Six Insightful Analytics Tools For WordPress Websites and Blogs
This is a guest post by Graeme Caldwell. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.
Analytics are essential for anyone who intends to be a success with their WordPress blog or website. Success requires delivering something of value to visitors.
A big part of that value is instinctive, as with any creative endeavor. It comes from experience, knowing your niche, and a passion to create something that people will appreciate and find valuable.
However, without analytics, it’s almost impossible to know whether your efforts are finding any favor. Without evidence, you will be walking randomly in the dark with no clue what to change to make your site better for its visitors, or to increase the conversion rates.
read more >
‘Equipping the Next Generation’ Website Features 1-Minute Event Registration Feature
“Leaders of integrity.” The phrase is almost an oxymoron, isn’t it?
But Martha S. Weiss and Dianna Frey, directors of Equipping the Next Generation, are committed to training women to develop their leadership potential, using biblically-based leadership techniques.
Martha and Dianna came to us with an existing “build-it-yourself” templated website they wanted to retire. They asked us to create a custom-designed, custom-programmed WordPress website and blog. This article highlights a cool custom feature we created for their new site: an event registration function that allows them to create a new event in less than a minute. Read on! read more >
‘Fatally Fun’ Author, Hillari Delgado, Gets a Jump on the Competition With her New Website
Hillari Delgado has a long and fruitful novel-writing career ahead of her. And I’m not saying that because the Blogging Bistro team created her new website.
Hillari – who writes historical romantic suspense “with a side of wry” – is a talented writer, and I believe publishers will soon be fighting over her nine manuscripts.
See for yourself; Hillari is publishing Lavender Close in serial form on her website. You get to read a new chapter weekly on the site, or you can subscribe to receive it via email from any page on her site. read more >
Consolidate Multiple Websites For Better Search Engine Ranking
This is a guest post by Matt Morgan. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.
We Aren’t Getting Enough Website Traffic. Let’s Build a New Site
Too often do I hear business owners jump to conclusions when they find that their current website is not generating the traffic that they’d expected. It is a common myth that you need to start over and build a new website to get to the top of the search engines in order to drive traffic to your offerings. read more >
Featured Website: VetPetConnect
Some of our favorite clients at Blogging Bistro are veterinarians. We love animals, and it’s always a treat to work with people who devote their careers to providing medical treatment for our furry friends. Dr. Teri Byrd, a veterinarian who… read more >
Paid Hosting or Free Blogging Platforms? Which is best?
This is a guest post by Matt Morgan. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.
Are you a professional or are you just playing at blogging? That’s the bottom-line question bloggers must ask when fiddling with websites and blogs.
What’s the Difference?
First, let’s define the two. Most blog networks offer a free version. With it, you’ll get a nice, but limited, choice of templates and, with little effort, you can get up and blogging almost immediately. The basic free blogging functions are great options for blogging newbies who want to test the blogosphere.
There comes a point, however, when you’ll come to the end of yourself, your website design skills and your blogging platform’s ability to meet your long-term goals. It’s time to consider an investment in hosting and perhaps a little design or SEO help.
Paid hosted platforms will look much the same as your free platforms but give you more branding and SEO options. It requires some investment, typically around $200 year, but with your investment comes support—hosting providers will help you set up your products. read more >
Navigating the Wonderful World of Websites (Guest Post)
By Marlene Anderson, MA, LMHC, NCC Guest Columnist Panic and fear come in different size packages. For some the thought of confronting their boss or giving a speech to an auditorium full of people are cause for more than just… read more >
