Blog - Website Services for Small Businesses

FAQ: How do I break a post into several ‘slides’ in WordPress?

November 21, 2012

Many of us have noticed that the bigger sites and magazines are breaking up their posts into bite sized pieces when it makes sense. If we stop for a moment - this also makes great sense from an advertising standpoint too. Great idea, right? Although this is little used, it's a built-in function in WordPress and oh-so-easy to use. 1. Use a built in quick tag where you'd like the post to split.  2. Insert the function into your theme if it isn't there already. This must be used within the loop - usually on the post template: single.php. 3. If you'd like to … [Read more...]

0 Comments Blog, Featured, WordPress Basics

Two Important Problems You Likely Have and Dont Know It

November 19, 2012

These plugins solve two important problems: slow WordPress sites/ missing page views, and tracking feeds once you are no longer using Feedburner. Both of the solutions are available via plugin and are offered for free. A donation to the plugin's author would be appreciated, I'm sure! Here are our recommended solutions. Moving from Feedburner? Use Feed Statistics More and more of us are leaving feedburner in favor of the default WordPress feed. If you are using the default feeds, you need something to track your subscribers. This is it! Download and set up is very easy. Once its installed, … [Read more...]

0 Comments Blog, Featured, Plugins

A Swarm of Spam to Hit the Northern Hemisphere

November 16, 2012

We've been inundated with questions about the crazy influx of spam lately. Unfortunately it seems to be widespread between websites all over the USA and Canada. Here is what you can do about the nasty spam problem: Settings -> Discussions: close comments after a few days. You'll set this based on your community and how long they usually carry on discussions for Settings -> Discussions: Require a previously approved comment Settings -> Discussions: Require a moderator to approve each and every comment (obviously this is not ideal for a lot of you) Add a captcha plugin (those … [Read more...]

0 Comments Blog, Plugins, Q & A

How to Create a Nice Pop-Up Window in WordPress (& capture Email Addresses)

November 12, 2012

We're going to cover two easy yet powerful tools today. First, you'll learn how to add a pop-up window in WordPress. And its so easy, you can add it to any link in your posts, pages, or widgets. Secondly, you'll learn how to use either MailChimp sign-up code, or a Contact 7 (plugin) shortcode to fetch an email address and name from your visitor. Ready freddy? Step 1: Fetch your newsletter list code In MailChimp, you go to Lists->Tools Icon ->Forms -> For your website -> Embed Code and copy the code provided. To use the Contact 7 plugin, open the Contact tab -> Add … [Read more...]

0 Comments Blog, Plugins

Five Traits That Will Drown Your NaNoWriMo Efforts (& The Solutions)

November 5, 2012

Usually we're inundated by information, our feed readers are chalk full of unread articles. Right? But one of the few things I still search for is how to write: How to write well; How to write consistently; How to Blog. I'm looking for NaNoWriMo HELP! I look for excuses, I wish I could hire someone to do it for me. I just wish I could get out of it altogether. Its a huge deal for me to blog. I've been thinking about what it is that keeps me from writing, and I've narrowed it down to a few in-my-face possibilities: stuck on a topic not sure if the topic relates to the … [Read more...]

0 Comments Be a better blogger, Blog, How To

The Thing I Haven’t Said

November 3, 2012

The Thing I Haven't Said Tonight - literally 30 seconds ago - I was reading the Impact Equation - the very first chapters about clearly communicating your message to the people that matter to you. And it hit me like a ton of bricks that I have not actually stated what is on my heart - this very important thing - and the reason that I work at DSWP every day. There are thousands of WordPress website developers out there. There are probably thousands in the US alone. But what we, at DSWP, provide is different. And it is a big hairy audacious difference that changes the game. We know … [Read more...]

0 Comments Announcements, Blog, Featured

Why am I going down (or up) in Google Search Results?

October 10, 2012

The question is completely valid - "Whats going on with my Google search results?" Unfortunately its the question that makes me cringe the most. I'll skip all the reasons for my turn-and-run face and try to answer clearly here. Answer: There are TONS of reasons that SERPs (search engine results pages) change. Here are a few common ones. 1. The wrong keywords. If you usually search for "my business - Vancouver" and the next day you neglect your second cup of coffee and the " - Vancouver" on your search, the results will be different. Search engines are getting wiser so there shouldn't … [Read more...]