By Debbie Campbell
Not really a ‘new’ service, since I do it all the time… but a different way to package it.
WordPress is free and is easy to use out of the box – but it’s also very flexible. You probably want to do more than just edit and add pages and posts, but how exactly do you get more out of it?
There are thousands of plugins and themes available for free (and some for pay) and it can be very confusing to the untrained eye. How do you pick the right plugin when there are half a dozen available for the exact feature you need to provide? And what if you need something that you can’t find a plugin for at all?
I can help. I provide guidance on the most efficient way to accomplish your goals, using freely available plugins or in some cases, custom programming. Contact Red Kite for more information (info null@null redkitecreative NULL.com) and let me get that new feature working on your site.
Posted in Consulting, WordPress | Tagged wordpress advice, wordpress consulting |
By Debbie Campbell
In the past two weeks Red Kite has launched two new sites: Beyond the Brochure (http://www NULL.beyondthebrochure NULL.net) and Reduce-My-Property-Taxes.com (http://www NULL.reduce-my-property-taxes NULL.com/). Both are WordPress sites with custom themes, and both include some custom development work:
- Beyond the Brochure has embedded videos from Brightcove that play in a custom lightbox;
- Beyond the Brochure has a private section where auto dealers can login and retrieve video links or code snippets for their websites;
- Reduce-My-Property-Taxes.com has a PHP-based tool that retrieves and displays county tax info from a .CSV file that the client can easily maintain.
Both sites were fun to design and build, since they were different than the typical small business sites I’ve been working on lately. Please check them out!
Posted in Launches, WordPress | Tagged auto dealer, brightcove, small business site, wordpress |
By Debbie Campbell
One of my clients earlier this year had request three matched sets of HTML templates so that she could use them to revise three websites for her employer. This client was just learning HTML and had a lot of questions and a lot of requirements; and did an enormous amount of upfront research. I don’t think I’ve ever had a client that prepared before.
Anyway, today she wrote me to let me know that all three sites have relaunched. She really did an awesome job with my templates, utilizing every element she requested I add; it was a lot of work considering she was new to coding at the start. The new sites are Brayden Automation (http://brayden NULL.com/), Energy Sentry (http://energysentry NULL.com/) and Wirelynx (http://wirelynx NULL.com/).
Posted in Launches | Tagged clients, launches, templates |
By Debbie Campbell
You’re looking for a new website – and a new design/development company. As you’re interviewing potential companies, many of them will probably talk to you about content management systems (CMS).
Most companies will probably talk to you about open source CMS – these are the popular platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and many other less-well-known solutions. Most of them are free, and all of them are highly flexible and customizable. With the right designer/developer, you can get a wonderful tool for your business in the form of an expandable, search engine-friendly and custom website.
Open source content management systems are great for many small and medium business owners because they:
- Give you freedom to grow your site, in the form of additions to existing pages, new pages, or blog posts.
- Are great for search engines, because you can add fresh content (which Google loves) without relying on a web designer’s help.
- Give you control over your own website management.
- Can go with you to the host of your choosing – they’re portable.
- They have large user bases – you’ll always be able to find support for your open source CMS no matter how much your business grows or where it takes you.
- There are a lot of developers and vendors making free and low-cost addons every day. What you can do with your site is nearly limitless.
However, you might find a few shops that have built their own proprietary CMS. This means they have their own custom CMS platform, usually running on their own servers. There are definitely some drawbacks to going this route.
- They’re expensive. You’ll probably be paying a monthly fee for the privilege of using their CMS. It might seem very cost-efficient up front when your site is being developed, but the perpetual fees can really add up.
- They limit your hosting choices. Often you’ll be required to use the company’s hosting services. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless you already have a host you really like, or the hosting costs are significantly higher than other comparable options.
- You’re tied to your provider. With an open source CMS, you can take it with you. You can move it to any host that provides the required server software, at any time you choose. If your site is managed with a proprietary CMS, you can’t do this. And – what if your provider goes out of business?
- No access to your own site’s source code. If you decide to go elsewhere, getting your data (read: your page content, images, uploads, etc.) out of that system is going to be difficult at a minimum.
- Support options are limited. Only your provider can offer support for your site.
- Quality and functionality is just as good, if not better, with open source systems. Years ago, it was true that to get a high-quality CMS solution you were probably better off going with a private company – but that’s no longer the case.
When do you really need a proprietary CMS?
I have not yet encountered a small or medium business that needs this kind of tight control, but there definitely are some situations in which a proprietary content management system is a good choice.
If your site needs security audits or has other strong security constraints, a proprietary CMS is probably the best way to go. A high level of familiarity with their own system will allow your provider to lock down security problems much more efficiently than with an open source CMS.
And, if you require a high level of ongoing, one-on-one support with a complex website, a proprietary CMS might fit the bill.
Otherwise, do yourself and your business a favor and go with an option that allows you the freedom to manage your site as you like.
Posted in CMS, Hiring a Web Professional | Tagged cms, proprietary cms |
By Debbie Campbell
The Colorado State University Environmental Learning Center came to Red Kite looking for help with a few things:
- A website that was standalone, not lost amid the larger site run by Warner College;
- A way to accept online payment for registration and membership without going off-site;
- A site where they could have their own unique look and feel (again, different than the department);
- A way to have a large number of forms more easily managed;
- A place where staff could view staff-only info;
- And most importantly, a site they could edit and add to themselves.
We obliged. The new ELC website (http://www NULL.csuelc NULL.org) has all of these features and more, including two calendars (one public and one for internal use), a blog, and a few photo galleries from various programs.
We used WordPress, our content management system (CMS) of choice, to handle the backend. The ELC has a number of editors that have access to different parts of the site (this access is managed in WordPress, too).
We recreated a number of forms, some of which were available on the old site only as PDF downloads. We used the venerable Gravity Forms plugin to make great-looking forms with extra features like conditional sections that display only when certain criteria are met.
One very important feature was ecommerce. The ELC worked with CSU to get an Authorize.Net account for their organization. We incorporated Authorize.Net’s provided payment form into the site, and connected it to our Membership and Program Registration forms to give a pain-free online purchase experience to those who chose to use it.
The ELC was very happy with our work and is making the most of their new site, blogging and adding in new programs as they are needed. We were happy to help!
Posted in Ecommerce, Launches, WordPress | Tagged authorize.net, ecommerce, gravity forms |
By Debbie Campbell
Fort Collins photographer Ralph Smith (http://www NULL.greendrakephoto NULL.com) wanted a site for selling and showing off his work. We used WordPress and the commercial Shopp ecommerce plugin to create a product-based website that’s easy for him to update and grow.
We used one of Ralph’s images as a background photo that resizes with the browser, and a simple slideshow on the home page to show off a few colorful images.
Posted in Launches, WordPress | Tagged ecommerce, photographer, shopp, wordpress |
By Debbie Campbell
I read a great post this morning from the Marketing Executives Network Group (http://www NULL.mengonline NULL.com); sometimes it’s hard to keep those blogging basics in focus and you need a little reminder.
Here are what MENG considers the most critical questions for business bloggers:
- What’s the purpose of the blog?
- Who is the audience?
- Do you have a headline editor?
- Is your blog a lone wolf or a team player? I like this one – I always try to encourage clients to think about how their blog, website, email marketing and social media naturally fit together.
- Does every post have an image? You’d be surprised how much more engaging an article can be with just a single appropriate image.
Read the full post here (http://www NULL.mengonline NULL.com/community/newsroom/meng_blend/blog/2012/02/08/five-questions-that-are-killing-your-blog-by-joe-pulizzi?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+MengBlend+(MENG+Blend)) for more ideas about how to improve your own business blogging.
Posted in Blogging | Tagged blogging for business |
By Debbie Campbell
I install Analytics tracking code on all sites from Red Kite, yet I know that most clients never go past the dashboard to see what’s going on. Here’s a great set of references for beginning Google Analytics users (http://blog NULL.kissmetrics NULL.com/50-resources-for-getting-the-most-out-of-google-analytics/).
Posted in Measuring Website Success | Tagged google analytics |
By Debbie Campbell
Fort Collins Baseball Club (http://www NULL.fortcollinsbaseballclub NULL.org/) approached Red Kite with a need for a complete overhaul of the design and code for this well-established ASP-based site. When we examined the code, we found an enormous old Javascript-powered image rollover menu that accounted for hundreds of lines on every page. Ack!
We created a new theme and built a base template containing cleaned-up versions of menu and structural code, reducing page size by up to 75% in some cases. The new simplified version of the site will make it much easier for their in-house editor to figure out what and where to make changes.
We also helped out by reworking the page layout so that elements like Important Announcements and sidebar boxes were modular, able to be used on any page.
Posted in Launches |
By Debbie Campbell
If you’re not already accepting credit cards on your website, here’s a quick review of two reasonably-priced payment solutions.
Paypal Website Payments Standard
If you definitely want to take Paypal as well as credit cards and don’t mind customers going to the Paypal site to enter billing info, then go with Paypal Website Payments Standard. Your customers don’t need a Paypal account to pay, and there are no monthly fees or setup fees. Fees per transaction vary depending on the amount of purchasing traffic you have each month.
It’s very easy to create Paypal buttons to paste into your site (or blog) for individual products using Paypal’s button builder, plus many major website shopping carts support Paypal Website Payments Standard. Read more about this service here.
CDG Commerce + Quantum Gateway
Another option (which I’ve been using since 2007) is CDG Commerce. CDG is similar to Paypal in that it combines a payment gateway and merchant account in one – you don’t have to get a separate merchant account at your bank. CDG uses Quantum Gateway as its processing partner. It’s definitely not as common as Paypal or Authorize.net, so if you’re using or choosing a shopping cart, keep that in mind – you’ll need to look for one that supports Quantum Gateway.
You can also create an order form for your site, but will need a small amount of coding knowledge for that. However, CDG’s fees are very reasonable: $10/mo with no setup fee and rates are comparable to similar services. Learn more about CDG’s Internet payment option here.
Keep in mind that getting started with any payment gateway service generally takes several weeks of background checks and account setup.
Posted in Ecommerce | Tagged accept credit cards, cdg, ecommerce, paypal |
