Find Out About Local WordPress Experts

Another helpful article from the Spokane WA WordPress Website Design Service, ROI Results Media Design: WordPress – Local Spokane Experts

Here’s an excerpt: ‘

WordPress Experts

WordPress is a content management system that allows for completely custom website design and development but also lets users log in and make updates using a very simple, intuitive visual editor. No coding necessary! we’re WordPress web design experts; let us craft an effective, compelling site, and then you take over, creating new pages and making edits without getting a web designer involved.’

Read entire article here: WordPress Website Design Service

Great Info for Small Biz Owners Interested in WordPress

A WordPress Website Design Service, ROI Results Media Design has an informative article on their website: WordPress Experts for Small Business Websites.

Here’s an excerpt: ‘

Reasons Why a WordPress Website is Best for Your Business

Using WordPress as the cms for your new website design makes business sense for a number of reasons:. Open source technology ensures you free updates for life. Unlimited customisation possibilities. Cost effective to get up and running. Huge community supporting the framework.

‘Read full article here: WordPress Experts for Small Business Websites.

WordPress Simple Checklist, Plugins & Other Resources Used in My YouTube Video

Simple Checklist

Very simple checklist for you to refer to. Make sure that you check out some of the other resources in this post: recommended plugins, Elementor templates, hosting discounts, and more. I’ll update this post from time to time.

(Here’s a playlist of short YouTube videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKmERbT08yvwuQ0nDOm_foQNulBt3naiY)

* Domain
* Hosting
* Connect via nameservers (if needed)

* Install WP
* admin login (mysite.com/wp-admin)

* Settings – Permalinks change to post name
* Users – Profile – change password if desired
* Pages – Add Home & Blog pages

* Settings – General – edit Site Title; change (both)WP & Site URL’s
to www.domain.com if desired; edit Admin email
* Settings – Discussion – change comments settings if wanted

* Plugins – some recommended plugins – WPHow2s.com blog post
– try to keep active plugins to no more than 15

Check Your Site Load Time

https://tools.pingdom.com/

Here’s a list of plugins that I use/have used and recommend (this list is always open to edits).

Easy way to install these is to have your WP dashboard plugin screen open in one tab and this post open in another tab. Then simply copy & paste from this list to plugin search box (without the asterisks ** of course 🙂

WordPress Plugins

Optional but very cool plugins

** Generate Press premium
You have to use the GeneratePress theme to use this. This is linked to the GP site where you can purchase the GP Premium add-ons plugin(aff link)

**Elementor Page Builder – Best Free Page Builder for WP – download on your WP admin plugins page.
** Check out the Pro version here: https://wphow2s.com/Recommends/Elementor (affiliate)


Recommended

** Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall

** WordFence Security

** TinyMCE Advanced

** W3 Total Cache

** Black Studio TinyMCE Widget

** Contact Form 7

** Smush Image Compression and Optimization

** WP Featherlight

** WP-SpamShield

** Google XML Sitemaps  (not needed if you use Yoast)

** Yoast SEO

** AccessPress Social Icons

** Meta Slider

** Duplicator – clone, backup, move

** BackupBuddy – not free, but best WP backup plugin (aff link)
———————————————————————
Optional

** Facebook Like Box   (By WP Lodge – seems to be the most recently updated)

————————————————————

WordPress Themes: Your Site’s Design/Look/Layout

Choose your website’s WordPress theme

Free WordPress Themes

http://wordpress.org/themes/

GeneratePress is a great free theme (affiliate) – GP also has a premium add-on plugin which makes this theme even better
Premium WordPress Themes (affiliate)

     Theme Forest: http://themeforest.net/

StudioPress: http://www.studiopress.com/           

Elegant Themes: http://www.elegantthemes.com
(this incl. Divi theme)

Themify Themes: http://themify.me

Other Resources

Web Hosting

InMotion Hosting – up to 56% off here MyEZWP.com (affiliate)

HostGator – up to 60% off here wphow2s.com/Recommended/HostGator (affiliate)
Discount codes
MIKEsave60 – up to 60% off, $4.99 .com’s
MIKESave30 – 6 months or longer
MIKESave10 – first month for $.01

Domains

NameCheap.com (my favorite place to buy domains)

WordPress theme used in video

** GeneratePress – free but has premium add-ons plugin that makes it even better

Highly Recommnded Utilities

LastPass.com – password manager

Firefox add-ons

MeasureIt

ColorZilla

Clipple

LOGOS

www.canva.com/create/logos/

Fiverr.com

LogoNerds.com

www.logomix.com

ROYALTY FREE IMAGE SOURCES

Free Sources

Pixabay.com
Unsplash.com
Flickr.com
(need to have attribution link on your site)

Paid Sources

CanstockPhoto.com
Depositphotos.com
123rf.com
Photodune.net

iStockPhoto.com
Shutterstock.com

Icons

www.iconfinder.com
www.flaticon.com/

Image Editing

Pixlr.com

Color Scheme Designer

paletton.com

DESIGN INSPIRATION

Elementor templates

ThemeForest

VISUAL EDITOR

Double space (paragraph) – ENTER

Single space — SHIFT + ENTER

 

6 Website Design Features That Will Increase Website Conversions!

In this video training I’ll give you 6 home page features for your website that will definitely help increase your website conversion rate – convert your website visitors into more calls, leads, and customers.

6 Home Page Features That Help Increase Website Conversions In this video training I’ll give you 6 home page features for your website that will definitely help increase your website conversion rate – convert your website visitors into paying customers.

What good is a fancy website if your site visitors leave without taking action. People want to know that you are a real local business, and that you provide good service or products – they want proof that you trustworthy. Give them that proof and you will find your website conversion rates will go up.

How to Create a Website or Blog 2015 – WordPress Twenty Fifteen Tutorial

Hi, thanks for coming on by. I know there is so much info nowadays on how to make your own WordPress website, or blog, as the case may be.

But may I humbly say that I think you have chosen well. It can be really, really frustrating, so rest easy my friend, don’t be like Captain Kirk–WordPress is not your Khan.

make-wordpress-blog-2015

Relax, really. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but you can actually get a good start in a day with WP.

BTW, if you came here from my video, scroll down for a list of the info/tips I went over in the video (like some good royalty free image sources, etc.

This won’t be a long blog post, most of the info is in my video below.

I use the Twenty Fifteen theme in the video, which is a WordPress default theme–meaning it will always (for a long time anyway) be supported.

Even if you don’t use the 2015 theme, there is a LOT of good info in the vid. I tried to make it so real beginners can follow along.

If you are just getting started, of course you’ll want to get a domain name. Think about it, get creative. Here’s a cool site that speeds up finding an available domain name.

If you are doing this for your business, having a keyword in your domain name (url) is still a good idea. I like using partial match domains.

For example, if you are an attorney, have that as part of your domain ( or even a full match, such as personalinjuryattorneysandiego.com, but good luck finding that one 🙂 )

I would only use .com, .net, or maybe .org for the most part for a business. But, I just bought a .co domain, so there a LOT of other domain extensions.

I like buying my domain separately from my hosting, but I buy quite a few. I have used a few different places, but NameCheap is my main choice. But it’s just fine to get your domain when you buy your hosting.

Speaking of which, if you need hosting, I recommend HostGator. Yep, this site is hosted there.

That is my affiliate link, so I will get a commission if you use it. I also have a couple discount codes that you can use:

MIKEsave30 for 30% off your first invoice, or MIKEsave10 to get your first month for $0.01 (full price after the first month though).

If you do use one of my codes, I truly do appreciate it, so thanks mucho if you did!

Ok, here’s my video. Check it out as you have time.

If you do have any questions, I’m happy to help if I can.

I do try to answer all my emails, though when I am busy, it may take me a few days. Just look for the Contact Mike link at the top of the page.

The helpful list is below the video, and while you are at it, you may want to check out this blog post about blog post ideas.

Have fun! 🙂

You can watch this video in full-screen, I believe it’s HD.

Helpful add-ons for Firefox (some have Chrome extensions)

MeasureIt

ColorZilla

Clipple

Firebug

Login/Password Manager

LastPass.com

Visual Editor

Shift + Enter –> Single line break
Enter (or Ctrl + Enter) –> Double line break (paragraph)

Royalty Free Image Sources

Free
FreeImages.com
Pixabay.com
Morguefile.com
Unsplash.com

Paid
99centstockphoto.com/
DepositPhoto.com
Shutterstock.com
iStockphoto.com

Icons
Iconfinder.com
Iconarchive.com

102 Blog Post Title Ideas to Get More Clicks for Your Blog

You know how you see a headline or title of something, maybe on Google, or just surfing the internet, maybe some good sales copy, and you just have to click on it?

Same idea holds true for your blog post titles.

blog-post-title-ideas

You want to entice folks to click on it, peak their interest, get them curious.

Which blog post would you want to read? “Some Good Blog Post Title Ideas? or “102 Blog Post Title Ideas to Get More Clicks for Your Blog”?

I know, I used this post’s title. 🙂 Maybe it’s not the best, but it does sound better than the first one. The point is, you want people to click on that link! And if you get more people to do that, you have a better chance to build a following.

Check out some of the big, successful internet sites…maybe Forbes, and the like. They definitely use catchy headlines.

This is not something new. Newspapers and magazines have been doing it for quite some time. And some people make a nice living writing sales copy, so it’s something you should consider if you have a blog.

Don’t have one but thinking you’d like to give it go? Check out my post about making a website or blog in 2015.

I use WordPress, of course, but these post titles can be for any website platform.

OK, the list is below. Replace the * with your subject, keyword phrase, and have fun blogging!

102 Blog Post Title Ideas

How To *
How To * In 1 Hour (or 2 Hours, 1 Day, 8 Weeks, etc)
5 Simple Steps To *
The Ultimate *
Top 3 *
5 Things You Should Know About *
Must Have *
The Best *
Top Rated *
10 Tips To *
Breaking News *
Advantages Of *
Fast And Easy *
Diy *
Top 10 *
5 High Demand *
6 Insider Secrets To *
Instant Solution For *
10 Tips To Master *
5 Essential *
Benefit Today From These *
Guarantee Success With *
3 Facts You Need To Know About *
3 Important Facts About *
3 Must Have Resources For *
3 Myths About *
30 Minute Tutorial On *
5 Solutions For *
5 Warning Signs About *
5 Benefits Of *
5 Examples Of *
5 Fast Fix It Solutions For *
5 Free *
5 Minute Method For *
5 Minute Quiz On *
5 Minute Tutorial On *
5 Proven Remedies For *
5 Secret Strategies To Improve *
5 Step Solution For *
5 Steps To *
5 Ways To Create *
7 Sure-fire *
7 Time Tested Solutions For *
9 Helpful Hints To *
Achieve Victory With These *
Advantages And Disadvantages Of *
Are You Worried About *
Best Secrets About *
Breaking News Story About *
Breaking News! *
Build Your First *
Easy Steps To Create Your Own *
Discover 5 Easy To Do *
Read This Before You Buy Another *
Effective Strategies For *
Exciting News About *
Exclusive Blueprint For *
Experience The Joy Of *
New Way To *
Finally *
Free Report Reveals *
Free Up 2 Hours In A Day With This *
Greatest Challenges Of *
10 Steps To *
New Technique Reveals *
6 Months To *
Get More In One Week With *
How To Get Rid Of A *
How To Stop *
Instant Methods To *
Imagine Gaining *
Instant Rewards With *
Last Chance To *
Learn How To *
Learn The Fastest Way To *
My Top 5 Recommendations For *
Never Before Heard Of *
New System Guarantees Success With *
New Method For *
Available Now *
Pros And Cons Of *
Proven Formula For *
Proven Techniques For *
Recent Survey Finds *
Remember How Much Fun It Was To *
Revolutionary New Plan For *
Secrets Finally Exposed About *
Step-by-step Guide To *
10 Minute Technique For *
The Greatest Benefit Of *
The Hottest Trends For *
The Lazy Mans Way To *
The Must Have Resource List For *
The Ultimate Blueprint For *
The Ultimate Checklist For *
Top 10 Tricks *
Top 5 Reviews On *
Top Faq’s About *
Top Rated Solution For *
What Everyone Needs To Know About *
What You Need To Do Today About *
Why I Used *

 

 

How To Add A Logo To The Twenty Fifteen Theme

How to add logo to Twenty Fifteen themeThe WordPress Twenty Fifteen theme is the newest WP default theme, starting with WordPress version 4.1. It’s a really nice theme– it makes it easy to make customizations right inside the dashboard, allowing you to choose color schemes, add background images, and more, but there is no way to add a logo without doing some coding. Well, unless you want to do it the easy way that is. 🙂

I’ve made it REALLY easy as a matter of  fact. If you can click a couple buttons, then you can have your beautiful logo on your awesome Twenty Fifteen blog or website.

Just watch the video below for the details (or you can follow the steps below the video).

Free Done-for-You Child Theme

First thing you will need to add your logo to your 2015 site is a child theme with the proper code in the header.php file.

That’s taken care of for you in the child theme below. It’s in a zip file, so just click on the link and download it to your computer in a handy location.

Click the link to download Twenty Fifteen child theme: https://wphow2s.com/twentyfifteen-child.zip

Then,go to your WP-admin dashboard and go to Appearance–>Themes and click on “Add New”, then “Upload Theme” and browse to the child theme zip file and install it. Then you’ll need to activate the “Twenty Fifteen Child” theme.

Next step, go Plugins–>Add New and search for Theme Logo. Install and activate that plugin. Now you’ll have a “Theme Logo” option under Appearance. Click to get to that screen and paste in the url of your logo in the “Logo Location” box.

WordPress Twenty Fifteen logo

To upload your very cool logo (I am assuming it’s cool 🙂 ) go to Media–>Add New. You can find the url by clicking on the logo image in your Media library–it will be on the left of the edit screen.

Have fun with your new Twenty Fifteen site, and if you’d like to watch me make a very cool site using that theme, go this blog post.

 

15 Ways to Customize The Twenty Fourteen Theme

CSS Tweaks for Your Child Theme

2014tweaks150x100
The Twenty Fourteen theme is a great theme in my opinion. Not everyone agrees of course, but I love how versatile it is.

Like most WordPress default themes, making “tweaks” to the theme CSS code (watch the video below) allows you to change the look of your site quite a bit.

I made a video using the Twenty Fourteen, but made the mistake of using the Fourteen Extended plugin.

That plugin is gone, so this post  will help you replace it, so that you can span the featured images full-width, remove the “indenting” of the content into the featured images, and more, without relying on that plugin (which wasn’t a good idea).

If you are a beginner, and all my talking about CSS and child themes has you ready to click away, wait a minute!

There’s no need to be a coding “ninja”  because it’s a simple process…really. 🙂

I’ve made it easy for you–there are 2 child themes that are done for you below the video, along with more CSS code to customize your 2014 site.

First, watch the video, then read the rest of the post.

Hint: This is HD, so click on the icon on bottom right to watch it full-screen. 🙂

You absolutely have to use a child theme, otherwise all your hard work can be lost when your theme updates, and the Twenty Fourteen theme updates on a regular basis.

To use the child themes below, you simply download the zip file(s) to your computer, then go to Appearance—>Themes in your WP admin dashboard, click “Add New”, then “Upload Theme”, find the zip file on your computer, install and activate. (you’ll need to have the parent Twenty Fourteen theme installed, which will usually be there already unless you have removed it).

Both child themes will center the site on the screen (instead of being aligned to the left), make featured images full-width, along with code that you can adjust the indenting of the your content into the featured image.

You can install both child themes (watch video) so that you have the option to have the left sidebar or not.

Note: You will probably have to resave your custom menu, header, & background after activating a child theme.

Remove left sidebar:

https://wphow2s.com/twentyfourteen-child-RL.zip

Keeps sidebar:

https://wphow2s.com/twentyfourteen-child.zip

Here’s are the 15  CSS snippets to add to your child theme, to tweak your Twenty Fourteen website further. Some of the code snippets are already included in the 2 DFY child themes, so double check.

I would suggest adding one snippet at a time and making sure it works (in case you didn’t copy the code right, or it just doesn’t work period–things happen 🙂

Make sure that you get all of the code, including the /* */ opening & closing tags for the comments.

Hover your mouse on the icon on the top right of the code box to highlight code.

1.This center aligns 2014:

/*this center aligns site */

.site {
    margin: 0 auto;
        }
        
/*end center align code */

2. This will make featured images span full-width:

 /* span featured images full-width of content */

.post-thumbnail img {
        width: 100%;
        }

/* end span featured image code */

3. Use this to adjust the indenting of content into featured image:

/* remove/adjust featured image indent (default -48px) change to 0 (zero) for no indent */

.site-content .has-post-thumbnail .entry-header {
  margin-top: -48px;
}

/* end indent code */

4. Adjust padding between top of content and header:

/* adjust padding between top of content and header  72px default */

.content-area, .content-sidebar {
  padding-top: 72px;
}

/* end adjust padding between top of content & header */

5. Adjust maximum width of content (don’t use this if you used the remove left sidebar code or child theme–the code to adjust is included):

/*  Content max-width adjust 630px as needed (default 474px)  */

    .site-content .entry-header,
    .site-content .entry-content,
    .site-content .entry-summary,
    .site-content .entry-meta,
    .page-content {
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 630px;}
    
    /*  End of max-width code  */​

6. Align navigation menu:

/* align nav menu (adjust header-main text-align value) */

.header-main {
 text-align: right;
}

.primary-navigation {
 float: none;
}

.primary-navigation li {
 text-align: left;
}

/*end align nav menu*/

7. Adjust current & link hover color, decoration:

/* link color - current & hover change text-decoration to none if link underline not wanted*/
		
		a:active, a:hover {
	color: #41a62a;
	  text-decoration: underline;
}

/* end current & hover link code */

8. Adjust link color – content sidebar widget links:

/* link color - content sidebar widget links */

.content-sidebar .widget a {
  color: #224488;
}

/* end content-sidebar widget link code */

9. Adjust link color, decoration:

/* link color -can underline links by changing text-decoration to underline */
a {
  color: #24890D;
  text-decoration: none;
}

/* end link color */

10. Adjust featured content (in grid header) padding:

/*controls height of featured content padding*/

.grid .featured-content .entry-header {
  height: 70px;
}

/*end code height of featured content padding*/

11. Remove meta data in featured content (grid header)::

/*removes meta data of categories by display: none*/

.featured-content .entry-meta {
  color: #FFFFFF;
  display: none;
  font-size: 11px;
  font-weight: 700;
  line-height: 1.09091;
  margin-bottom: 12px;
}

/* end meta data categories */

12. Adjust page & post title font size:

/*Page titles*/

.entry-title {
  font-size: 15px;
  font-weight: 600;
  line-height: 1.09091;
  margin: 0 0 12px;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}

/* end page titles*/

13. Adjust site title font size & color:

/*site title font size & color, etc*/

.site-title a, .site-title a:hover {
  color: #FFFFFF;
  font-size: 26px;
}

/* end site title */

14. Remove auto text hyphenation:

/*No auto text hyphenation*/

.entry-content,
.entry-summary,
.page-content {
	-webkit-hyphens: none;
	-moz-hyphens:    none;
	-ms-hyphens:     none;
	hyphens:         none;
	word-wrap: normal;
}

.nav-links {
	-webkit-hyphens: none;
	-moz-hyphens:    none;
	-ms-hyphens:     none;
	border-top: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
	hyphens:         none;
	word-wrap: normal;
}

.comment-content {
	-webkit-hyphens: none;
	-moz-hyphens:    none;
	-ms-hyphens:     none;
	hyphens:         none;
	word-wrap: normal;
}

.widget {
	font-size: 14px;
	-webkit-hyphens: none;
	-moz-hyphens:    none;
	-ms-hyphens:     none;
	hyphens:         none;
	line-height: 1.2857142857;
	margin-bottom: 48px;
	width: 100%;
	word-wrap: normal;
}

/* end no auto text hyphenation*/

15. Use so sub-menu navigation item in left sidebar isn’t covered by slider image:

/*This is so a sub-navigation menu item in the left sidebar menu is not
 covered by a slider image*/

#secondary {
  z-index: 9999;
}

/* end sub-menu code */