Posts Tagged ‘Website Design’

13 Plugins To Make Your WordPress Blog Better

When Joe, at Inline Bits (affiliate link), and I were building the development strategy for the new NateRiggs.com, selecting and installing the right plugins, was a critical discussion early on. One of the reasons that I believe WordPress is such a great blog platform is the variety – and maturity – of the plugins that are available.  We mentioned some of the plugins we used in the HOW TO launch a blog post a few days back. After some requests in the comments from Rick and Dale, I wanted to make sure I put links to the tools, as well as how I’m personally using them.  There’s no particular order here.  All of these have been selected because of their functionality and ease of use: Akismet – I’m not particularly sure where I first learned about Akismit, but as a spam blocker plugin goes, it works really well.  Comment spam is annoying and this plugin will save you tremendous amounts of time you might otherwise spend deleting those nasty Viagra messages. All in One SEO Pack – Jack Stoops, blogger and WordPress guru at Agent-SEO first turned me on to All in One SEO Pack.  My opinion is that this plugin is essential for anyone with basic knowledge of how search optimization works.  What I love best is that it actually has character limit reminders built in to make sure you don’t go too crazy on the meta data.  The fields are east to use and totally WYSIWYG. Apture – Have you ever scrolled over a link or image on a blog and noticed a box pop up with a screenshot and more information?  If so, it’s probably driven by Apture.  This plugin will even pull in social media profile data if you link to people in your posts.  It’s pretty [...]

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HOW TO Rebuild a Blog with Joe Payton of Inline Bits

Today is the day!  As you might have noticed, I have some new digs! I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for the chance to work with Joe Payton on this project.  All of the creative and programming was his baby. I also want to extend special thanks to Mike Harris, Fathi Siad and Marlene Dade (and the whole team over at Ecommerce, Inc.).  Marlene actually handles marketing for WebHost Biz and her e-commerce jewelry website was also designed by their sister division, Inline Bits.  I hope that in looking at the work they’ve done on my blog, you can understand why I’m proud to be an affiliate partner of the organization. You’ll be hearing more about Inline Bits and the new line of services being launched to support businesses and bloggers (like me) in the coming weeks.  For now, here’s an interview with Joe on how this blog was designed and produced, as well as some of the great plugins that I’ll be using going forward.  Hopefully you can use some of them to help take your own blog to the next level. So what do you think?  Any suggestions? nateriggsLike what you just read and want to get my posts delivered to your inbox? SUBSCRIBE HEREMore Posts Follow Me:

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Only Thing Constant is Change – Part 1

You rock. :) I really appreciate that you take time to read my stuff and I’m glad you find some value in my daily banter.  Truth be told, I’m grateful you’re here.  Seriously.  Getting to communicate with you via the social web has made a huge difference in my life.  Thank you. [Mushiness over.] Only Thing Constant is Change – Part 1 I’m driving a clunker and it’s well overdue for a tune-up.  My blog sits on Chris Pearson’s thesis theme, which I love and am going to stay with.  What you see in the design elements, sidebar widgets, site architecture and everything else has been implemented by yours truly over the past two years, with the exception of the header image that was designed by my buddy, Chris Adams. The problem with this is simple: I’m not a web designer or developer.  I’m a communications and social media strategist, as well as a content engineer, focused on human branding.  The truth is, in design, I’ve taken things as far as I can on my own.  It’s time to upgrade and defer to real experts in those areas. So, for the past month, I’ve had the privilege of getting to work with some pretty amazing people at WebHostBiz, a division of Columbus-based, Ecommerce Inc. (last two are affiliate links).  I came on as an affiliate of Ecommerce Inc. because I believe in their model, their people and how they approach customer relationships.  It’s a good fit on both sides of the table and I’m really excited to work with and endorse them.  I’ll have more of that story in some future posts.  Okay? For now, WebHostBiz has lent me the incredible talents of Mike Harris, Michael Parenteau and Mr. Joe Payton, all of whom have been a pleasure to work with. [...]

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