If you’re looking for helpful tips on managing your WordPress.com blog, look no further than lorelleteaches.com; it’s a fantastic WordPress resource for WordPress.com bloggers…

code wordle - group of words that are synonyms and types of code. In 2005, WordPress became modular separating the design and architecture from the core programming code.

Today, a WordPress Theme contains files called template files that hold the architecture of the site and template tags, code that initiates actions within the site and data from the database. The design is applied through a stylesheet, holding the instructions for the colors, images, and look and feel of the entire site.

This tutorial covers the basics of the structure of a WordPress Theme and standard customization options.

The Structure of a WordPress Site

Like all websites today, a WordPress site contains a background area, header, sidebar(s), content area, and footer.

The background area is considered the canvas that the site’s structural and design elements rest. It is usually a solid color, pattern, texture, or a design that does not overwhelm the rest of the content and design elements.

The header area…

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March 27, 2013 1

Do you like me?

http://youtu.be/W7TbV4xlOsQ

Being a WordPress consultant in the WordPress.com community is a terrible thing. I’m always coming across things that I’d like to change or add to my blog as I read your content on your sites. Changing the look and feel of my blog is something that I could do even more often than I do, but recently, I changed to the Splendio theme and I’m quite happy with the results. It’s a little bit edgy for me, but I think the generally upbeat ‘feel’ is consistent with my message of wholeheartedness and self-compassion…

What about you? What’s your take?

March 23, 2013 4

Flee, pursue and lean

Sunrise over the south beach of Jamaica. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” http://bible.us/2Tim2.22.NIV

I find in this verse a threefold approach to spiritual and mental health.

Flee ‘evil’
Pursue ‘good’
Get help from likeminded people…

It’s not enough to simply stop doing something — I believe you have to START doing something else and it’s great to have help from likeminded people who will support you in your quest…

Posted from WordPress for Android

May 28, 2012 0

This is a tad oxymoronic for my liking…

Posted from WordPress for Android

May 19, 2012 0

The magic in your mind

Have you read this? I only recently came across it thanks to blogger David Kanigan @ Lead. Learn. Live.

View this document on Scribd

February 28, 2012 0

I’ve been blogging with WordPress for years. Lately, I’ve really been liking Storify. What happens when you put the two together? Amazing things!

I’ve been blogging with WordPress for years. Lately, I’ve really been liking Storify. What happens when you put the two together? Amazing things…

http://storify.com/e1evation/storify-wordpress-rocks

January 11, 2012 2

One of my new, favorite bloggers Heidi Cohen has these thoughts on blog design for you to ponder…

Writers at heart, many bloggers rush through selecting their blog design elements without much thought when they first start. But the reality is that design is core to your blog’s brand and readership. Therefore, out-of-the box blog set-ups most likely won’t work for you.

Blog design doesn’t require artistic training. It requires strategic (read: high level) thought, determining your blog’s goals and target audience (aka: persona) before you jump in and start blogging.

Review the blogs you read frequently to become familiar with your options. Consider which blogs you like and which elements of those blogs attract your attention. Make a list of those elements you want and those that you don’t want.

Here are twenty-one blog design elements that you don’t have to be a graphic designer to select…

Source: How To Design Your Blog | Heidi Cohen

Go to the source if you are interested in her 21 elements. Me? Through a long and rigorous evaluation process, I have decided to become a Woo Themes developer. I won’t bore you with the details of my search, but it literally lasted years. Woo offers over 100 themes that look good ‘out of the box’ but are also very easy for me to customize to a client’s specifications…

Heidi’s right! Much more important than the design is the actual strategy. Adam Osborne said “Adequacy is sufficient. All else is superfluous” and I agree. When it comes to design, I believe a tweaked Woo theme may be all you need – as I tell my clients, ‘Google doesn’t search for pretty’. I focus instead on delivering to my clients a system or toolkit with a repeatable process that is easy to use based on the premise that if it’s easy and fun to do, they might actually do it. On the back end, I have been working hard this year to link my ‘e1evation workflow’ more deeply to the value demands of my target audience by linking keywords to the problems my target audience is trying to solve. If you use a repeatable process like mine for your blogging and use a Woo theme for your site, you will draw your target audience in and the design won’t scare them away!

Heidi’s thoughts on determining your blog’s goals and target audience are must read before getting started — comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…

Indications of a Robust Blog Design (stunningmesh.com)
5 Best WordPress Themes for Gadget and Tech Blogs (devilmustcry.com)
WooThemes Releases Survey Results As An Infographic (wptavern.com)
The Top 25 WordPress Themes Of 2011 (noupe.com)
2011 – a year of big milestones & happy memories (woothemes.com)

January 8, 2012 0

WordPress. Where would I be without it? Most likely living a life of quiet obscurity in Algoma, WI. Thanks to WordPress, however, I have a global platform and people can find me in Google. Does it work? Well? You’re reading this, aren’t you?

The Power of WordPress Infographic – Pingable :: Everything WordPress | Pingable :: Everything WordPress

January 2, 2012 0

Right Where You Need To Be (via Breathe.Smile.LetGo)

I love WordPress! Here’s another great blogger I found who is using it well. I was drawn in by this quote — “Many times on my journey I stopped short, convinced I would never find the place I was trying to find, only to discover that it was right in front of me all the time. (M. Beattie)” — and liked the rest of what I saw while I was there. I now subscribe to ‘Breathe.Smile.LetGo.’…

The other day I was driving along and realized suddenly that it takes more effort than it used to for me to brake. It got me to thinking about how that gradual change in my brakes’ effectiveness has finally caught up enough for it to be noticeable. It was nothing that happened over night. It was a combination of events that have occurred over the past 40 thousand miles. And then I started thinking about the larger picture… Did you know that if … Read More

via Breathe.Smile.LetGo

August 28, 2011 0

A client asked me what is the best way to include pdfs in WordPress. Since I really hadn’t thought about that for awhile, I asked the smartest WordPress guy I know what he does. He answered “I like to upload to the media library, grab the URL link and then link to it in the post. More work but better control over appearance and such.” Now I’m sure that works fine, but for now, I’m going to use Scribd [an example of which you see below]. Me? I’m always thinking ‘home bases and outposts’ [use the search box] so Scribd makes perfect sense for me. If I post my pdf there and copy the embed code here, not only do I get some powerful viewing tools [full screen, print, etc.] someone my find my blog because they found my document in Scribd…

Here’s his approach:

WordPress-2-8-Visual-Cheat-Sheet

Here’s Scribd:

WordPress 2.8 Visual Cheat Sheet

http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=21982552&access_key=key-adv049fck266gx0onkr&page=1&version=1&viewMode=slideshow

Either way works — which one is more effective depends on your objectives but I’m biased toward being ‘social’ and Scribd helps me accomplish that objective nicely. Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment or use the contact page to reach me…

May 10, 2011 2

via lifehacker.com

I use 4 out of the 5 platforms daily. WordPress is the hands down favorite of most people in this poll, but the real winner is anyone who uses both Posterous and WordPress together to drive traffic…

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

March 24, 2011 2

: Image via Wikipedia

It’s called wp-cumulus [it’s in the sidebar and it looks like a spinning globe of metadata!] and you can install it on your WordPress blog, too! Have a great weekend…