Since I have started doing more and more WordPress work (who would have thunk it :)). I have to start paying more attention to the things that make WordPress work the way people want it to work.

 

*For those WP people out there I don’t think WP is any easier than DNN to use or tweak to do things I want, it’s just different.

 

Here is a link to 40 WordPress Tricks and Hacks - http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-most-wanted-wordpress-tricks-and-hacks/

One thing I notice absent in a lot of these articles is reference to building a site map for Google and other engines to use to help crawl the site. So I am adding in my suggestion to always add the sitemap plug-in to your WordPress blog. The plug-in can be found at - http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/.

UPDATE: If you are using WordPress.com and not hosting your own they already supply an xml site map for you. (Thought I should add that.)

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This last week I was looking at domains for a project and wouldn’t you know it some of the domain names were taken by cyber squatters, imagine that. After some looking around I found a few of the domain names I was looking for for sale on a variety of domain resellers. What these b******s were asking for these domain names is outrageous! No content, no traffic, no marketing  just a name. This exercise got me to thinking what sites, and to a lesser extent domains, are worth and how they are valued.

In my opinion a going concern of a site should be worth more than a domain name but looking around that doesn’t seem to be the case. If you are curious here are five of the better sites I found to value a going domain. Of course like all things in the business world what something is worth depends on if you can get someone to buy it.

Site Value Check – uses Google page rank, Alexa traffic ranking, back links depth, average popularity...

Okay sounds like a proverb or something but when I coach kids in swimming its what you do. You tell you show them and you make them do it. One of the best ways to learn right?

So the new design is blue and has these little playdoh guys I think are neat. The blog has gotten a little bit of a work over and the other pages will get some enhancements and design elements as I get to them. The great thing is most of this design work is done with CSS. I really think that I am starting to ‘get’ it. Of course I still have a long ways to go but I have to say the 960 grid system and @nokiko’s grid program have been a big helper. I put the new skin together in less than a day. Yes its sort of simple and the menu needs some color work but I ran it through the W3C xhtml checker and it actually came back with only 2 errors. One is a DNN attribute on the form tag (don’t think I can fix that one) and the other I think has to do with a div tag inside of a span tag, again not sure what to do on this but I figure I did fairly...

http://www.toniturner.co.uk/flash/recipeforsuccess.htm – I just got a kick out of it.

I like CSS but it seems like it takes so much more time to develop and troubleshoot CSS sites than table based designs. (Okay you CSS people can send all the comments you want but that's my experience.)

Hopefully I can change that for myself with a new framework I found, the 960 Grid System. The website has a more complete overview but basically what the framework aspires to do is codify the layout of sites on a 960 pixel wide grid system with that width split up into 12 or 16 columns of equal width with a gutter between each column. For people like me who tend to think very linearly this is about like drawing on graph paper.  The whole framework minified is about 4k or 5k and saves me from writing a lot of the CSS that I would need write to build the same site. I know this framework isn't for everyone or every site but artistically layout impaired developers like me its a blessing and very effective tool.

@Nokkio (on twitter) has developed a DNN skin and system based on this idea which can be seen...

I am a developer not a designer! I think most of the people I talk to on a regular basis say this at least once a week. Most developers, okay the ones I hang out with, don't have a lot of artistic ability. I don’t mean they aren't creative, I mean how else can programmers deal with visualizing all the variables and interactions of data, text and logic. What I mean is, hand them Photoshop and you will not get one useable graphic from them much less a straight line.

Knowing this I went looking for tutorials to make myself a better designer. Know I know quite a bit about CSS and something about how it works but trying to develop a skin for DNN with CSS is something of a mystery. Now, with this tutorial http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/, I feel a little better about trying to get going on a design. Still can’t draw a straight line but when I learn how to do that I’ll be able to show it with a better page design.

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I am so glad I found the Kansas City Startup Weekend (purely by mistake on Twitter). Excited to go and see what the hype is about but mostly eager to go and get out of the funk I am in. One of my ‘goals’ for this year was to position myself as a freelance coder and consultant. If you are in the consulting business you know how hard it can be to establish a reputation, and I have had some unfortunate and bad breaks. However, I am determined to go and be productive and find or at least be inspired by all the entrepreneurial spirit I already feel online from the event.

You can follow along if you want online, Kansas City Startup Weekend, here are some resources:

Kansas City Startup Weekend Blog Kansas City Startup Weekend Live Video Feed (via UStream.TV) Dan Meltons Vimeo Group...

Kind of a fun Doctor Who song - listen for the Exterminate!