Philadelphia WordPress Users

Posted on October 1, 2010 by PAwebman

Be aware, WordCamp is coming to Philadelphia. The WordCamp Philly event will take place on October 30, 2010.

Where’s it at?

I just told you … Philadelphia. Ok, it’s actually at Temple University in Philadelphia.

What is this thing called WordCamp?

WordCamps are held throughout the world. Usually, once a year in various cities throughout the world. WordCamp is a bootcamp for wordpress users. If you use WordPress you don’t want to miss this event. This is the first annual WordCamp Philadelphia to take place.

Who’s going to Speak?

Who isn’t! You won’t believe the quality of the speakers. Philadelphia is very rich with knowledgable WordPress developers.   We have also made up a list of  WordPress Philly Speakers on twitter. This is an important list because every speaker usually downloads slideshows and videos of their presentation. Of course they will list it on their twitter page.One of the first things you’ll notice is there is two tracks for learning. Basically, a beginners track, and an experienced user track.

And the Cost for the show?

An unbelievable $20. Yes, I said $20.

All that really matters is….

I will be there. I have volunteered to help. Please, stop me and introduce yourself. I’d love to meet ya.

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Web Design Website For Sale in Pennsylvania

Posted on July 7, 2010 by PAwebman

This is a great business opportunity that is available for the right person. I’m looking for an artist or web designer that has very little web development skills, but great artistic abilities.

What’s for sale?

Here’s what’s for sale. Website, hosting and web development guidance.

The Website

The web design website address is webdesignpa.net/namecity/. Right now just about every city and county in Pennsylvania is available. As an example: webdesignpa.net/smitherie/. If you don’t know how valuable an address like that is, let me add some thoughts. All websites want to show up in search engine results. The address I’m offering has an awful lot going for it as far as capturing that search. so when a customer enters web design erie pa, you have a good start to have your site come up high in the search results.

The Hosting of the Pennsylvania Web Design Website

I take care of all hosting. This is all about working with artists and visual design people who don’t know the technical stuff. I overlook the hosting. The Hosting Service I use is very reliable.

Web Development Guidance

Like I said before, I am looking for people that create beautiful artwork, not technicians. When you are part of webdesignpa.net, you get my web development guidance. I’ve been doing this for over five years and know quite a bit about this internet thing!

Costs

Yea, I finally got to the cost of this offer. Ready for this….$20.00 per month. YES! You can be selling websites for only $20.00 per month. That’s what it’s all about….selling websites. What I’m looking for here is a long term relationship. If you are the right match to what I need, I might even let you start the site at no costs until you sell your first website.

The perfect person for this offer

Artist, designer,needs help with the web developer end of websites,full or part time,Strong familiarity with Adobe Products.

How do I sign up?

Use the Contact Form on this website. Tell me about yourself. What you would like to accomplish. What city would you like? Do you have a website that isn’t getting results?

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Building a strong Pennsylvania Website Foundation

Posted on June 24, 2010 by PAwebman

When surfing this huge web, I am constantly reminded of how important a strong website foundation is to a website. Not only new websites, but your existing website. So many business owners are spending a lot of money updating a web page that has no chance of getting recognized. They are throwing money away.

Top 3 things you can do to promote a strong website foundation

This is not my opinion, this is opinions of web designers. I happen to agree with these top three items. Your website should have the following capabilities:

ONE – Set the Title on every web page on your site. This is located on the very top of your browser (internet explorer or firefox) All the way to the left. This identifies what this web page is all about.

TWO – Keywords in the URL of your website. Most Pennsylvania Business Owners are trying to capture: city,state and product or service. Example: Delaware County PA Web Design.

THREE – Web Page HTML Heading Element for each page. This tells the search engines what the page is about.

The Pennsylvania Website Template

The PA Weby team has developed the Pennsylvania Website Template. I am proud to announce that this Website Template has a very strong website foundation. It can’t get any better than this. It has all three website foundation requirements.

Should you convert your present website?

I’d have to look at your current website to determine if it would make sense to convert to this website template or not. Costs to convert would be determined by how many pages would have to be converted, and who is going to convert these pages. I say this because one of the major selling points of the PA Website Template is the quick and easy updating of your website. This can all be done by your, or your staff. All you have to know is how to type.

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Using Photoshop to sell PA Websites

Posted on June 22, 2010 by PAwebman

Make no doubt about it, a lot of people are using Adobe Photoshop to design websites in Pennsylvania. The problem is, very few designers, or non-designers even, are producing effective websites.

Photoshop uses tables as a layout system

Using tables as a web page layout system is not used mush anymore. You can actually get away with this, but the more popular method is using CSS as your presentation method. There is this movement around where you should separate your content from your presentation information. Like I said this is not much of a problem. The problem I don’t like is the photoshop software creates invalid html mark-up. Don’t believe me? TRY IT! Create a photoshop web page and validate it using the W3C html validator.

A picture of text is not text!

Search engines don’t have eyes. When a designer places an image of text (Usually using photoshop) it is not read by the search engines. This is where the problems start to arise. The designers using photoshop have a problem placing actual text on top of and in the correct position in relation to their artwork. Don’t worry, Beautiful websites sell! Even if they are not effective! I wrote an article about the conflict of beautiful versus effective websites.

Selling PA Websites

I have just mentioned a couple of little mistakes Photoshop users make when creating websites.  Fact is in order to be a great website designer in Pennsylvania you must spend all your time learning and practicing the design portion of a website. It’s what we do here at PA Weby. You don’t have time to keep on top of making the website effective too! That’s what I do. I know how to make websites that are effective. That get results! I don’t have time to create pretty websites!

The Pennsylvania Artists Website Template

To solve this problem, I developed the Artists PA Website Template, and the PA Artists Web Design Group. The Website design is available as a download right now. Inside the download is the details for selling websites with the PA Artist Web Design Group. This group is looking for designers using Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc to create websites. Using my Website Template they can create websites that are effective and start selling PA websites. Each member of the group will have their own website and sell to their own area in Pennsylvania. By teaming up with me they get all the advice and guidance they need. Finally the Beautiful and effective Pennsylvania Website can in fact be created.

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I love the Search Engines

Posted on June 6, 2010 by PAwebman

Just a quick comment. Or I guess it’s a quick post. Or is it an article? You figure it out!

Artist Pennsylvania

Less than an hour after I wrote the article on Artists and Websites, I was saying to myself. What would it take to capture the number one spot for the words artist Pennsylvania? This is nothing new to me. I am constantly evaluating and seeing how this wonderful thing called the web works!

Artist’s Inn appeared from my search

Listed in the top search engine results was the Artist’s Inn. What a pleasant website that is. I have no affiliation at all with the inn, so don’t go thinking I’m trying to sell you something. The website made me want to visit them! I’m only an hour or so away from them, maybe I will!

Why a Bed and Breakfast in Artist Pennsylvania search?

Well, the fact that this website showed up in my search results, kinda let me know, I can probably capture a high listing if I write a couple of articles about Artists in Pennsylvania. I’m guessing you could care less, but, I wanted to see the nice website I found. I won’t even get into the fact that an artist obviously owns the INN, but very little artwork in the design of the website. I’m guessing this is a frustrated artist wondering how to paint for a website!

Results of my investigation?

You might be wondering what the results of my Artist Pennsylvania investigation was all about. I think I’ll keep that to myself! Being in the internet marketing business, I kind keep these thoughts to myself. Secret Squirrel type things!

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Are you an artist or a technician?

Posted on June 6, 2010 by PAwebman

I’m becoming well aware of the fact that you can’t be effective at trying to be both a fantastic artist and a great coder, or web developer. Here’s some of the crazy thoughts going through this head of mine.

Author’s NOTE: June 22, 2010 – As a result of this article I have come up with the Pennsylvania Artists Website Template. If your an artist and need help with the coding portion of a website, this template is for you. I actually provide a PSD file as a guide. This website template is so strong, artist’s can start selling websites that all of a sudden are both pretty and effective!

Web Developers know how to get results on the web

I consider myself a web developer. I know how to get search results and set up the perfect web site to get recognized by search engines. This Pennsylvania Website Design website is all about helping the PA Business Owner get search engine results. This is not something I can do effectively as a side project. It takes a lot of time to analyze whats going on out there. The target for the most effective web site techniques is something that is constantly changing. What works now, or what you think works now, can be changed overnight tomorrow! Take the download speed of your web pages. All of a sudden download speed matters!

Artists know how to make websites look beautiful on the web

I’ve taught graphic design. I was constantly hit with the fact that some of my students could produce better website designs then I could. I was spending all my time on making sure I taught them the right subjects. I didn’t have time to make beautiful websites! If you are a great artist, you don’t have time to figure out how to make your website effective. I’m sorry, there is a constant conflict on the web. Do you want an effective website, or a beautiful website? I don’t even want to get into the fantastic artist that has no idea how to take their great work from drawing to web.

Beautiful websites sell!

Make no doubt about it. Beautiful websites sell. For years I’ve been frustrated with the fact that I can create extremely effective websites that get recognized by the search engines and get results, but most people look at my websites and see nothing but text. The better I get at creating an effective website, the further away I get from making a beautiful website. I am constantly watching business owners purchasing the latest gimmicks and tricks that sell websites, even though they don’t get noticed. I see it everyday. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t see a website that is not being recognized, but is listed as a great website. There is not a day that goes by, where I see a website that has all kinds of power to get top listings, but the search engines don’t know what the page is all about.

How do you get from beautiful to beautiful and effective?

I guess what is needed is a team approach. You design a beautiful website, then I’ll take it and make it effective. WOW! I just added to the cost of a website! Maybe that won’t work! ha ha! In the download for my artists website template a actually have an offer in there for artists that want to become web developers with my help. By joining my Pennsylvania Artists Group, we can start selling websites that are both effective and beautiful. If you want to start Selling PA Web Design in your area, download the website template and read all about it..

The future of web design

I have a feeling I’ll be frustrated for the near future. Beauty sells. I will keep plugging away, and making effective websites. In the long run I think I’ll win out. How about dropping me a line and letting me know how you feel about this. Are you as frustrated as me? Are you an Artist in Pennsylvania that is frustrated in the other direction? Maybe we should join forces!

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Web Fonts just got exciting!

Posted on May 20, 2010 by PAwebman

You might have noticed I just changed the font of all the headings on this website. Before you start thinking I’m some kind of genius, I am not. Fact is GOOGLE once again made me look like a genius!

Google Font API

Goggle has just started a new service to embed fonts into websites. The GOOGLE FONT API is nothing short of fantastic in my eyes. By adding a line of code in my html, and add code to my CSS main file, I was able to immediately Get a new look to my headings. I counted 18 font styles that are being offered.

Separating content from presentation

I don’t know if anyone has taken the time to look (why would they?), but I handle my CSS a little different than most developers. I group all my most used, and most changed elements together. All my color designations are grouped together, all my border information is in one place. I actually have a block of code that I can turn on and offer that places a border around every part of my web page, so I can actually see what the text and images are doing inside a border! I could write an entire article about that. Think about it. By adding /* and */ to my css I can turn on and off all the borders on the web page! Back to my point. When you separate your content (text and images) from your presentation (styling, colors,backgrounds,fonts) you have soooo much control over everything. PLUS-I did NOT change what my web page looks like in the eyes of the search engines. They have no idea I just changed the look of my web page!

How did I do it? Steps involved….

First I placed a stylesheet line of code in my head section of my web page HTML code. This is how the font gets placed into my web page. Next I opened my main stylesheet, and designated what text I wanted to add the new font to. It’s that simple!

Can I place the font inside my content?

Let’s see if I can: HERE IS A SAMPLE.

If it looks different I was able to do it! Ha Ha! All I did was go into my wordpress HTML section of the post and added the style element to the paragraph!

Does the GOOGLE FONT API work with WordPress BLOGS?

Well, this website is in fact a WordPress Blog, so YES! It does work in websites as well as BLOGS!

SUMMARY

Thank You Google! Once again you’re making me look good! Web Design Pennsylvania with it’s new Pennsylvania WordPress Theme never looked so good! This could change the entire internet look, and how to place fonts into wordpress blogs and websites! By the way, did I mention there are all kinds of things like shadows that you can do also!

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Directory Marketing – Pa Website Owners

Posted on May 18, 2010 by PAwebman

When we talk about Directory Marketing, we are talking about marketing your website by submitting your website address to the various directories out there on the web.

Kinds of Directories

Directories come in all kinds of formats. Some are Paid Directories – You get into these directories by paying a fee. In return for your money you get a link from the directory to your website. There are also Reciprocal Directories – You get into these directories by linking to their directory from your homepage, in return you get a link to your website.

Is it worth the effort?

I own quite a few directories. I feel qualified to give my opinion about this. So here it is – MAYBE! How that for a commitment! Ha ha! The reason I hesitate is there are all qualities of directories out there on the web. Let’s give an example. Let’s say we want to target Pennsylvania Football. Better yet Philadelphia Pennsylvania Football. If you can find a football directory, then that would be a great directory for you to be in. Better yet would be a Pennsylvania Football Directory. That would cover two of the three words you are trying to get recognized for. The best of all bests would be a directory of Philadelphia Pennsylvania Football. You definitely would want to be in that one. Lot’s of luck finding that directory! On the other hand you have directories that are so broad they barely cover the words you need to be listed for.

Most Directories are National or Worldwide.

These Directory owners start directories so they can take in as many listings as possible. Great idea, but, what happens is your listing gets posted so far down into the structure of the directory, it gets no power. It becomes a very low power link coming to your site. Which directory would you rather have pointing to you….directory.com/usa/pennsylvania/football, or pennsylvania.com/football.

Directory submissions can be automated…and usually are!

There are programs that automatically submit your website to these directories. What you end up with is a whole lot of low quality links to directories that don’t relate too good to your website. There is nothing wrong with all these links coming to your site, but you still need the relevant links. You need the links that relate to your site.

Outsourcing you directory submissions

In most cases a directory gets bombarded from overseas with all kinds of website submissions. I spend a lot of time deleting submitted websites that have nothing to do with what the Directory is about. You see, I try to run a quality Directory. Something worthy of placing your link on. Someplace of value for you to place your website.

Whats the value of an incoming external link?

Value as in PR value, or value as in Relevant Value? Can you put a price on an incoming link from another website that is what your website is all about? The Directories I run usually are reciprocal Link Directories. I here it all the time. Why would I give a strong link from my high PR site to your Directory? Because it makes sense!

Directory Marketing for Pennsylvania Website Owners

Remember, that’s what we are talking about here. I own a Pennsylvania Website Directory. It so happens that this Directory has a little power behind it. And-It’s only a couple months old! It’s moving along at a pretty good pace. I hope it’s because I don’t accept any crap. Trust me on this…I delete about 5 links per day submitted to my directory. Now, there are other Pennsylvania Directories out there. Mine is not the only one. My point is Directory Marketing works if you take the time to find a good directory. Once you find a good directory, use it. Can you submit different pages…Can you list your website two ways, by category and by location. Example: Philadelphia PA Football would be one listing. Football, Philadelphia PA could be another listing.

Directory Creation Software

I find it amazing that there is one particular popular directory software out there being used, that also submits a ton of websites to it, as soon as somebody starts the site. The cheap labor from overseas creates an awful lot of links on the internet. It might not make sense for you to send links to all these directories, but you’re only making a couple of dollars a day, you don’t mind sending all kinds of links out!

Summary

I think Directory Marketing works. I have quite a few specialty Directories and they all seem to be growing. My point is not to push my directories. I mentioned the Pennsylvania Directory because this blog is about Pennsylvania Websites! Now, go out there and create some links!

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Pennsylvania WordPress Theme

Posted on May 14, 2010 by PAwebman

I’ve been creating a wordpress theme the last couple of days. I built it around the keyword Pennsylvania. I am just about done with it.

Author’s NOTE June 22, 2010: After starting this project of trying to develope a wordpress theme for Pennsylvania, I became very aware that just slapping a theme up would not do the trick effectively. Therefore, I completely changed the wordpress base coding to effectively create a website that would be set up to help capture the keyword Pennsylvania. The name of this project is the Pennsylvania Website Template.

Whats the big deal?

Well, the big deal is, it is quick to load, seo correct, html correct, and easy to use.

SEO Correct

Yea, I know. You’ve heard that before. Trust me on this. The theme is made for one reason, to get you recognized for the keyword “pennsylvania”.  So if you want to start a political blog about Havertown Pennsylvania, You could use this theme and it would greatly help you with one of the two words that your trying to get known for.

Costs for the Pennsylvania WordPress Theme?

I plan on giving it away for free. All I ask is that you leave a link to me in the footer. Me being  Web Design PA. This is typically how these free wordpress themes work.

Any DEMO available?

well…..actually….this site is using the Pennsylvania WordPress Theme. Don’t be jumping to any conclusions. Like I said, I’m still not done. I do NOT plan on keeping the space pic on the top. Just needed something to throw up real quick. The best feature is the title bar up top. On every page Pennsylvania is the first thing that shows up. I love it. I want to be known for Pennsylvania Web Design. Now, as I write my posts, the world will know I’m talking about Pennsylvania. I could actually make a WordPress Theme up for Web Design. Then if I used it here, my site would turn a little national. I have enough problems with just Pennsylvania.

Author’s NOTE: I am not using the Pennsylvania WordPress Theme on this site. I am using the Pennsylvania Website Template.

WPDesigner.com was a big help!

If you ever want to try and Design a WordPress Theme on your own. Don’t miss this Tutorial. Fantastic! I didn’t see a name on his blog. Would love to pick his brain! WOW! Althought I would change things around a little…..That’s my nature!

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Websites built with templates

Posted on May 10, 2010 by PAwebman

While browsing through my local craigslist I found this ad “$269.00 Websites-many templates to choose from”. Or something of that order. I know a little about website templates so I asked myself, “How much would I charge for a website using a template?”.

Your Domain Name, your Hosting Site?

I will assume you would have your own domain and it would be hosted someplace. At least that’s what I’m going to quote! Domain Name would be the address of your website. EXAMPLE: http://www.carinsurance.net or something similar! The hosting would be were you keep your files that make up your website. In case your wondering about costs: Domain Name – 8 – 12.00 per year. Hosting – 1 to $5.00 per month. Usually the 5.00 per month is what is used. You can actually get free hosting but usually doesn’t work out to good. That’s another article.

Where do templates come from?

Well, were do these templates come from? As a website developer my host has all kinds of templates for people to use. Let’s see, I sell myself as a web designer, but give you a website template. That won’t happen here at PA Weby. You already know, you aren’t getting something custom made! A template would be very generic and someone might actually be using the same template as you. That’s ok, there is nothing wrong with that. As long as the content is different, that’s whats important! So this company went into their account and pulled a couple of templates out to give as choices. I have over 100 to choose from. Problem is you can’t get into my account to see the templates. Templates also come from doing a search on the internet. Search on the words “website templates”. If you want free ones search on “free website templates”. Just a word of caution, free website templates usually require you to provide a link to the designer.

Steps involved in creating a website using a template

Lets see:

  • Step-1 Domain Name
  • Step-2 Host
  • Step-3 select template
  • Step-4 Install templates
  • Step-5 Change all content in all pages

I will assume we are talking about a five page website.

$200.00 for a website using my template!

That’s what I came up with. Your doing all the work! You’re supplying the photos (8 max). Your supplying the content. I just do a little plug and play! In case your wondering I figure about 2 hours for the photos and about 3 or 4 hours to plug in the content.

Do I recommend it?

NO! let me make sure you heard me. NO! The templates I looked at in my host are all poorly set-up as far as Search Engine Optimization is concerned. What we are talking about here is doing a lot of work that is not being seen correctly by the Search Engines. This is not the way to go! I’d rather see a text website that was set up correctly being used then wasting your time with a template. Remember, we are talking about templates supplied by your hosting service. I’ve developed a website template for artists in Pennsylvania that is set up correctly and very effective.

Pretty is easy to sell, effective is hard to sell

It happens to me on a daily basis. You loose a customer to a pretty design that is not search engine friendly, but looks great! This is not like printing flyers! If it was it would be like designing a beautiful flyer and sticking it in a cabinet never to be seen! Here’s a fact for you. Most designers know how to design. They don’t know how to make their designs search engine friendly. I even wrote an article on pretty websites versus effective websites. The worst is the designer that uses software the wrong way to design their websites. Remember, Beautiful!!! Very easy to sell. Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver comes to mind. Do not get me wrong here. You can use this software effectively, but most designers don’t.

How would I do it?

Start your sites foundation with very basic clean search engine friendly design. As your site starts to get used, then start spending some money on design. I say this, but I guarantee most business owners won’t listen. They’ll opt for the pretty website! Another good reason for a basic clean text website is the speed of the website. The download speed of your web page is becoming more important and search engines are starting to list sites in their search results according to how fast the web page loads.

Editor’s NOTE June 22, 2010: After writing this article I actually thought about how low I could get a beginning website started for. I came up with $150.00. And it actually comes with a nice design! To get the details on this cheap Pennsylvania website, check out the artists website template.

Would I do it for $200.00

Would I recommend using the templates supplied by your host for starting a website? NO. Would I do it? Sure! I’m in business. BUT! I don’t recommend it. I recommend a website template that has search engine optimization built in that actually works! For this website template to make sense it has to cover three main items. ONE – Be able to change the title on every page. TWO – Be able to change the Page Title on every page. THREE – Have a website address that encompasses all the keywords a business owner is trying to capture.

Do you have a website built from a template?

Do you like it? Maybe leave a comment, and I’ll look at your website and tell ya what I think. Most business owners on the web don’t even know if their website is made from a template. This could be a little game. I’ll rate by beauty and effectiveness. Leave a comment! And by the way, if you are a designer that uses software to develop websites the correct way, I’d love to meet ya!

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