Things Are A Brewin’

April 3, 2011 by
To The Portfolio
coming_soon

The end of this week I hope to have a few more key project either completed or nearly completed. Its been a busy first quarter that included many challenges including malware finding its way to my server account. Not only infecting me but about 20 other sites I host. I'm been working like a dog and couldn't be happier to see my Birthday month long gone. Bring on April and spring and a new way of doing business. I have a lot of exciting changes going on here at BrianLis.com. I hope to release … [Read more...]

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WordPress For Beginners

December 7, 2010 by
To The Portfolio
wp4d

If you are new to web design, blogging, and WordPress, I recommend that you take some time to learn about WordPress via the resources listed below. Resources: 1. What is a Blog: http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging 2. WordPress First Steps: http://codex.wordpress.org/First_Steps_With_WordPress 3. WordPress Lessons: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons 4. WordPress TV - How To: http://wordpress.tv/category/how-to/ 5. WordPress For Dummies book (great … [Read more...]

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How to Pick a WordPress Designer

November 29, 2010 by
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Functionality

I'm making the assumption that you've already landed on the best open source CMS (Content Management System), WordPress. If you're still deciding on a CMS read why WordPress is the above the rest. The next step is picking a design or a designer. If your a do-it-yourself type of person I suggest building on the Genesis Framework. However, be forewarned Genesis is a pretty code heavy. For everyone else I suggest hiring a designer/developer. The first and most important factor in hiring a … [Read more...]

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Brian Makes Time’s 2010 Top 50 Websites

November 18, 2010 by
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timethumb

One of my websites Total Pro Sports made CNN's Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites 2010! The success of this website is a credit to Anthony, the site owner. He spends a good deal of his time generating content and working social networks like Digg, Twitter, Facebook etc. But at the end of the day people can visit the site once, but its takes the right mix of content, design, and functionality to generate repeat visits. This is a great example of how important blogging is. If you look at any of … [Read more...]

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Why WordPress?

November 16, 2010 by
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wordpress

Often I'm challenged on the wisdom of using WordPress an open source CMS vs. someone's proprietary CMS. The answer is pretty clear when you consider all the benefits. WordPress Is Flexible and Extendable Flexibility allows us to build sites faster, meaning more of your budget is focused on design and user experience rather than programming and debugging. The community has made it extendable, meaning that everything you can think of has already been built, which speeds up … [Read more...]

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Favorite WordPress Plugins

September 18, 2010 by
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plugins-for-wordpress

While I have a favorite plugins page I thought I'd list out the essential plugins I use for every site I build. Featured Story: There are a number slider / image slide show galleries to choose from but none of them were easy for the end user. Other alternatives did not allow you to stylize any of the options. Featured Story does all that and its super easy to implement on your WordPress site. Google Sitemap Generator: This plugin maps out your site automatically that allows Google … [Read more...]

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Adding drop shadow to a box using style.css

August 15, 2010 by
To The Portfolio
box-drop-shadow

Here's a cool technique I use to make a drop shadow effect without making a custom image. Which not only saves on file size but its cool ;) -moz-box-shadow: 0 5px 10px #333333; box-shadow: 0 5px 10px #333333; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 5px 10px #333333; /* For IE 8 */ -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#333333')"; /* For IE 5.5 - 7 */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#333333'); You can … [Read more...]

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WordPress “Pretty” Links

August 9, 2010 by
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pretty-links

WordPress creates pages & posts like this http://brianlis.com/?p=123 Not exactly SEO friendly or even human friendly as p=123 probably doesn't mean anything to anyone. To change the way your pages are displayed inside your WP admin panel goto Settings>Permalinks. Switch the settings to custom and use the value /%postname%.htm or /%postname%.html or /%postname%/ depending on how you want your post slug or URL to be displayed. There might be SEO advantages as to the ending you use. I've … [Read more...]

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WordPress robots.txt file

August 6, 2010 by
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robot

The robots.txt file is something that WordPress auto generates that tells search engine spiders how to index your site. The file is auto generated for you. You can find your robots.txt by just adding "robots.txt" behind your domain name. The generic WP robots.txt is this. User-agent: * Disallow: Sitemap: http://brianlis.com/sitemap.xml.gz This code tells spiders indexing your site to refer to the sitemap.xml.gz file to index your site. Hopefully your using a sitemap. If not you can … [Read more...]

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Blogging… again

August 6, 2010 by
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blogging

Back by popular request. Well not actually. I just wanted a place to remind me all the little web design tricks I've picked up along the way. In addition to a reminder to myself, I'm a strong advocate of blogging to all my clients - especially corporate clients. Why? Because blogging does two things for you. First, it sets you up as the authority in your field. As prospective clients review your site they'll see you know all the intricacies about your product or service. Secondly, its GREAT for … [Read more...]

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