WordPress, originally developed as a blogging platform, is an easy-to-use, FREE content managed system that is available to anyone with a domain name and web host (and even those without).

WordPress is the ideal solution if you just want to add a blog to your company’s existing website (or for personal blogging), but WordPress is not just a blog.

It can also be used as a standalone website with “static” web pages that you can quickly add and change at any time as long as you have an internet connection.

Working off a database, the default WordPress installation comes packaged with a number of features and is constantly being developed to improve user experience (both that of the owner and visitors) as well as to maintain a high level of security for your website. (more…)

One of the best ways to keep your website fresh and interesting for your loyal visitors is to add new content. Not only will it encourage them to keep coming back on a regular basis but it will help your website stay at (or close to) the top of Google search results pages (provided you are using the right keywords in your content).

The type of website you have – static or content managed – and how much time you have available, will determine whether you can add or change content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I recommend changing your content at least monthly, but if your time or budget is limited, choose things that are quick and easy to change or add.

Below are 10 quick and easy ways to update your web content you might want to try. (more…)

In my last article I mentioned the cool FREE tools Google has on offer to help small business owners become more visible on the internet.

Amongst the free tools is Google Analytics which, as you probably know if you own a website, is great for analyzing statistics on visitors and the keywords they used to get there.

But did you know that you can now find out what the World is searching?

Underneath the Analytics report for your keywords your visitors used, there is a link to “Google Insights” where you can find out how many searches for those same keywords have been made around the world during a given period. But more than that, “Google Insights” is another free tool, which in Google’s words, you can use to “compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.”

How is this useful? you’re probably wondering.

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Rediscovering StumbleUpon and some free marketing guides

Sometime last year I became a “StumbleUpon” user and for awhile I used it regularly each day, particularly enjoying the fantastic photography I would stumble upon. But I realized today I had not stumbled upon anything in a long time. Why? Because I generally use Firefox for my browsing and I have StumbleUpon set up with Internet Explorer.

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After two weeks of intermittent down time of my website and having to manually fix the problem, to the chagrin of one or two clients who couldn’t gain access when they needed to, I decided to switch my hosting over to GoDaddy.ca (really it’s an American company, and I swore I would stay with Canadian, but enough is enough already).

Apologies to anyone who couldn’t get to my blog on Kaz Design Works or the business directory on www.powerfulwomen.ca I’m a great web designer, but can’t always find my way around the control panels of web hosts to find the relevant bits of information I need to get things like databases up and running.

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There’s been a number of comments in response to my postings. Unfortunately, most of them have been caught by Akismet and thrown in my spam box.

Akismet is a great plugin and I recommend it to all WordPress bloggers if you want to avoid spam appearing on your blog.

However, I apologize to anyone who has posted a genuine comment and is wondering where it is. I do not receive notifications for any comments caught by Akismet.

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That’s been a trending topic on Twitter for the past couple of days. Well, not those exact words, but something similar so I read the article they were all talking about: IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On

It’s the message web designers and developers, including myself, want clients to send their visitors! And I can understand their frustration.

Why?

Well, because, like most most web designers and developers, I often spend hours after I’ve completed a design, that looks perfectly fine on all the most popular browsers (Firefox, IE7 & 8, Chrome, Opera and Safari), altering the code so that pages render correctly on my old laptop which I’ve deliberately left installed with IE6 (small screen with outdated browser software). (more…)

I just came to write a small note on an article I read yesterday, that I thought would be useful for website owners (as well as website designers/developers), and when I got here I discovered I hadn’t written any articles for a month! Has it really been that long?

I’ve been pretty busy over the last few weeks with a few different projects as well as problems with both my computer AND my laptop, so haven’t had the time to even visit my blog, let alone write anything. (more…)

Today, we are launching our new blog, “Kaz Talk”, where we will post tips and information that we learn or discover during our day-to-day business exploits. This came about after receiving a hoax email yesterday. We wanted to share the information we learnt with our clients and visitors to our website.

Our posts will not necessarily relate to graphic design or website design; you’ll find those in our resources section. Instead, we’ll post anything we learn that we feel you might also benefit from knowing about. Topics we may cover will include internet or computer related tips, small business information, networking events and trade shows, marketing seminars (or webinars) and interesting video clips.

We’ll even mention new contacts we meet who we think you may benefit from knowing; small business owners, entrepreneurs, consultants and sales reps who may be able to help you achieve your business goals.

We’re actually fairly new to blogging, and will have to learn to make it part of our daily routine, so bear with us, but check back often to see what’s new.

Please feel free to leave a comment about any of our posts or contact us if there’s something specific you’d like us to write about.