Prove It: What Makes You Trust a Website?

What makes you trust this site? What makes you trust me? What makes you trust any website you visit? What is it about the site that earns your trust? I’ve asked this question at most of the conferences and keynotes I’ve given over the past seven years: What makes you not trust a website? The […]

How Much Do You Charge for Web Dev/Design Services?

As part of an ongoing annual survey for the social media industry, Mark Collier offers this year’s “How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2012?” report on our industry. This is a significant survey and mostly matches the ones coming out of the WordPress 2011 State of the Word survey from self-employed respondents, WooTheme’s […]

Basic Facts and Resources You Need to Know Now About Web Accessibility

Last night I gave a presentation for an amazing group of web designers and developers in Portland, Oregon. I spoke about web accessibility, a long time passion of mine. My co-presenter was Winslow Parker from the Oregon Commission for the Blind who has been teaching screen reading and computer techniques to the blind. He’s also […]

Bloggers Are Not Webmasters and Webmasters Are Not Bloggers

This comes under the “I wish I’d wrote that” heading. LGR Webmaster Blog featured “Bloggers Are Not Webmasters”, a simple look at the difference between a webmaster and a blogger, which goes to show that there is a lot to managing both a website and blog. In general, it is a good look at the […]

Rant Over Excuses for Not Being a Web Professional

I’ve long wanted to rant about how anyone today seems to be able to pass themselves off as an expert, especially when it comes to web design and development. Oh, I could easily build up some steam. Today, I don’t have to rant. Roger Johansson of 456 Berea Street lets go in “Lame Excuses for […]

CSS and Web Page Design List of Resources

The following are links to sites to help you design a web page or WordPress blog’s WordPress Theme. These include references for styling or designing your site using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML tips and techniques, accessibility issues, web standards, and designing your web design for mobile, handheld computers, and print. CSS – Reference Cascading […]

Blog Exercises: What Makes You Special?

A client greeted me with an over-enthusiastic hug yesterday. “I’m so glad to be working with you! You made me find myself again.” “Were you lost?” “You have no idea how lost I was.” I was confused. He lives in my neighborhood, walking distance from my front door. “Here.” He handed me a huge stack […]

Blog Exercises: The IKEA Effect for Bloggers

The Ikea Effect was coined by researchers who found out what we all know but rarely admit, we put too much ownership into our own brainchild ideas and concepts. In other words, we tend to fall in love with our own ideas and creations. If you have ever been around kids, you’ve probably had that […]

Exploring Social Media Tools Series

In October of 2008, I started a series called “Exploring Social Media” on the Blog Herald. The challenge was to dig into the myriad choices and options to dance the social dance online, to network, share, inform, and educate with the various tools available. I began by asking people to define social media, since it […]

When a Comment Requires the Honest Truth

Maybe it was one of those days. Maybe it was something in the air. Today, I had six comments that required the honest truth as a response. Not the tempered, kinder and gentler response but the hard cold truth. The kind of truth you have to give knowing that some can’t take it. Not all […]

Shopping for a Blogging, Traveling Laptop

My laptop has reached the four year birthday and I’m ready for a new one. Every computer and laptop I’ve owned I’ve pushed beyond it’s capabilities from day one. I will never forget the first computer my husband and I bought “together”. Within three days, I’d filled the 2 gig hard drive, the largest one […]

Weekly Digest: Back on the Farm, Improving Your Blog Series, WordPress Podcast Reporter, and More

While the world is rushing around doing holiday activities, I’m in panic mode to finish up some major projects and working very long hours – in between feeding animals and doing farm work. Had a lovely adventure with one of the mini-donkeys, Rocko, who got lose and I found him wandering around in front of […]

Weekly Digest: Floods, Harp Guitars, WordPress 2.4 News, and Improving Your Blog Tips

I’ve been back for a week and already have been snowed, hailed, rained, frozen, and flooded. The electricity held but the Internet was down most of four days, so I got a lot of behind the scenes work done, as well as unpacking. I’m playing catch up as fast and furious as I can amidst […]

Is Your Blog Design Holding You Back?

In a guest post on ProBlogger, Wendy Piersall from eMoms at Home wrote Is Your Blog Template Holding You Back? In the first few months of blogging, there was SO much to learn. I figured that SEO was one of those battles I would tackle once I was “more established”. But after 9 months or […]

Should You Design Your Own Blog?

A while ago, a popular blogger, asked me to review his blog design for improvements. Just so you know, I do this for a living, and my review isn’t cheap. 😉 I gave him my review, pointing out the flaws, misalignments between identity and design, and improvements that would not just help his page ranking […]