1. Spread out the content in your sidebars to create more white space.
2. Check your widget codes for errors. If someone gives you a grab code or ad code for your site, PLEASE check it for accuracy BEFORE you put it up on your site. It can cause your site to crash (Widgets Can Kill Your Blog) or cause other weird formatting issues. This is a VERY common problem that we fix almost daily on blogs we work on.
3. Delete extra themes that you are not using  (if you don’t know what to delete – ask for help, please!). Having inactive or out of date themes can create vulnerabilities for your site as well as slow it down.
4. Delete unused plugins. Do not keep deactivated plugins for “someday”. Delete any plugins that you are not currently using as inactive or out of date plugins can create vulnerabilities for your site as well as slow it down.
5. Set featured images for your posts. This can help for people who are sharing your posts on social media and for your Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin. You can also add titles and image tags to your images when you are uploading them, as this helps with your seo.
6. Update your About page. You can also add a cute photo of you, with a mini bio, to your sidebar and use it to link to your About page.
7. Make it easy for people to share your content. Do you have some kind of share plugin installed and in use?
8. Make it easy for people to contact you.  We recommend a contact form that auto emails to you, as this protects your email address.
9. Limit the posts on your front page to 3 full posts unless you have some other form of home page (such as 1 large post and 4 excerpts).
10. Check the navigation of your site and see if there are any ways you can improve.

I am linking up with Top Ten Tuesday this week.

Email Can Be Time Consuming

I know that I am in good company when I say that email CAN be time consuming.

I have had a continual problem with missing important emails (not completely, they just hide themselves) and I needed to find a way to deal with the overflowing inbox that worked for me. Amy wrote a really good article about not letting your Email Inbox Run Your Life, but I had a few other things to add, so I decided to respond with my own post.

My husband (Jonah) and I work on-line. We are working with design clients on a daily basis. Avoiding email is not an option or we risk losing business. I had to find a solution to email that worked for me.

When it comes to email, I have learned two things. I have control over most of what comes in AND I have control over how I approach it.

Managing Subscriptions

I found Bloglines. I have deleted virtually all my email subscriptions and started reading blogs via Bloglines.

• I can organize the blogs.
• I read by category.
• One glance and I can find new articles.
• I can click through to posts and easily add articles to Buffer.

Creating A To Do List

Another thing that I did was create a pretty To Do List sheet. I printed a stack of them. When I start reading through my emails. I added things to my to do list.

Download the “To Do List PDF”

My old approach was to take each email and then go on a bunny trail. Needless to say, this was not too effective or productive. I would continue on the bunny trail and get completely sidetracked focusing on someone’s blog emergency or interesting article and never come back to checking emails.

Preventing Bunny Trails

My new approach is to pull out the check list. This way I can write down all the things that really need to be done. I have my list and I don’t have to go back through all the emails to find my things that I need to do. Here are some of the types of things I add to my list.

1. blog posts to write
2. emails to answer
3. blog emergencies
4. opportunities to respond to
5. tasks that need doing

This list is NOT for ideas, but only specific things that need doing. I have another list for ideas. Yes, I am a list blogger.

How do you deal with your email?
Do you have a mountain of email to wade through?

 Check out the rest of the prize list here.

My husband and I (Honey aka Sunflowermommie) offer graphic design services and a whole lot more. My husband and I both do graphic design, I do basic tech support and my husband does the coding.

We love working with bloggers and businesses of all shapes and sizes. We do our very best to keep our prizes affordable so everyone has the chance to get a beautiful custom design.

If you are looking for a graphic design, tech support, or training (blogging, WordPress, or social media) then we would love to work with you. Please contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Images are only good to those who can see well. Accessibility is a feature that blogs and websites can have, but is often not implemented. Making use of accessibility means that screen readers for the visually or  hearing impaired are still able to use your blog or website.  Another important thing to note besides accessibility is that some work environments disable loading images.

This is where the “alt” tag attribute plays its part. The “alt” tag attribute is used to display alternative text (alt = alternative). This text can be anything, but it is good practice to try and make it say what the image is (think descriptive).

Another way to increase the user experience is to use a “title” tag attribute. The “title” tag is shown when someone hovers their mouse over your image.

Please note: Most blog platforms, like Blogger or WordPress, allow to you to create the text needed for these attributes when you upload the image into your post. If you are like many bloggers who use text widgets to show images, such as grab buttons, then this is very useful.

Here is a tutorial on putting these attributes on your images:

Step 1 Image Code

Write out your image code:

<img src="http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alt_titleonimages.png" />

Be sure to note spaces in this tag and the “/” at the end.

This shows the image:

Step 2 Add the “alt” attribute

<img src="http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alt_titleonimages.png" alt="Alt on Images" />

Now when you look at your image it still looks the same.

Let’s say the image accidentally gets deleted, then you will see the words. Also some browsers don’t show the text, but instead they show a broken image graphic.

Step 3 Add a title to your image

To add a title to your image use the following:

<img src="http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alt_titleonimages.png" alt="Alt on Images" title="Alt on Images" />

You can view this by putting your mouse over the following image:

Now your graphics will be more effective for SEO and your readers. Enjoy!

Not many people have caught up to the “new” HTML5 standards, and we have noticed on many sites the use of the <center></center> tag.

This tag in HTML is used to center things. For instance <center>some text</center> will make the text centered. When used in a theme that is HTML5 standard this code will still produce an unseen error. This error can be seen by using a validator like: http://validator.w3.org/.

Most web browsers will fallback and still center, but it is good to use the “new” standard.

Most online services like WordPress or Blogger have corrected this in the areas where you create posts or pages.

STEP 1 Style Attribute

We will use this simple paragraph to demonstrate. Please note this is the code version:

<p>Some kid did something fun!</p>

To center this we use a style attribute like this:

<p style="">Some kid did something fun!</p>

STEP 2 Add some CSS

We won’t go into everything about CSS( which is short for Cascade Style Sheet). For this bit you need to know only one.

text-align

This CSS property will align text. It has several values which are good to know

• left
• right
• center
• justify

Each of these values do exactly what they say. So now we use the center value:

<p style="text-align: center;">Some kid did something fun!</p>

Please note the : and the ; they are important.

This code when viewed looks like this:

Some kid did something fun!

This also works for images like this:

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/testimage.png" alt="" /></p>

This looks like this:

Step 3 Using a DIV

Using the div tag makes it easier to center a group of images or text. Using the code above, it isn’t hard to change it to work with this tag.

<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/testimage.png" alt="" /><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Some kid did something fun!</p></div>

This looks like:

Some kid did something fun!

As you can see, it still centers.

Have fun coding!

First we are going to install the RSS Footer Plugin. You will go back to the Plugins section and click on Add New.

Step Two

Then type in the search field the name of the plugin – RSS Footer.  After you have typed RSS Footer, then you need to click on Search Plugins.

Step Three

A list of plugins will pop up. You will click on the Install Now button right below the words RSS Footer.

Step Four

Then a little box comes up asking you if you are sure you want to install this plugin. You need to click OK.

Step Five

After you have installed the plugin it will take you to a page where you can activate it. You need to click on Activate Plugin now.

Step Six

Now you will need to go to the Settings for the RSS Footer plugin. You can get there from a link below the Plugin name on your Plugins page. Open this now.

The page will look like this, but we are going to come back to it in a few minutes.

Step Seven

For this next piece, I suggest you open your site in a new tab in your browser so you don’t lose your place. (This is how I do it). Then you will need to click on Media.

Step Eight

Next you will click on Add New in either of the following locations.

Step Nine

You will be prompted with a screen like this. Click on select files.

Step Ten

A window will pop up asking you to select your file from your computer. Select your file and then click on the OPEN button.

Step Eleven

Something similar to the following should show up below the graphic that was shown in Step Nine.

You will need to click on the File URL, select all (control + A) and copy (control + C) that information.

Step Twelve

Now you are going to go back to that other tab you left open in Step Six. You did leave another tab open, right? It looked like this:

You are going to change that funky looking code:

And change it to this:

Here is a closer look:

You will need to type this exactly as seen above with all the spaces intact.

Step Thirteen

Then you will need to personalize it for your own needs by changing out the text and the link. The text at the beginning appears as a note, then you have your link to your PDF, and then you have the title of your PDF. These are all important and you can see why when you look at this graphic to see how it will be displayed in your post.

Step Fourteen

You have the option to put this above or below the posts in your feed.

Step Fifteen

If you need or want to change the PDF that is in the RSS Footer you can always do that by going back to the Plugins and then the settings (both mentioned above in Steps One and Six in this tutorial). You can also get there by clicking on the Settings in the left column. This will bring up a menu (in the same column). Then you click on the RSS Footer.

And you get back to the place we discussed in Step Twelve.

That’s All Folks

Well, that’s all for this tutorial. If this tutorial was helpful to you, please leave a comment and feel free to share it with your friends. If you have any questions or need any additional help, please leave me a note in the comments.

]]> http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/2012/01/subscriber-only-content-through-your-rss-feed/feed/ 4 http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/2011/12/adding-a-google-badge-to-your-blog/ http://honeycombdesignstudio.com/2011/12/adding-a-google-badge-to-your-blog/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:44:46 +0000 Honey http://creativehoneycomb.com/?p=609 Please note: This tutorial is for owners of self-hosted WordPress blogs, but others may find some useful information. 

Step 1 – First you need to go here - Link your Google+ page to your site - Keep this page open in one tab. 

You will be filling in this blank…

with your Google+ ID. The circled red part is an example of what the Google+ ID looks like. 

Step 2 – Open a new tab and pull up your Google+ home page.

Step 3 – Click on your name OR switch to your page and click on your page name. If you switch to your page name, you will be linking to your page and not your personal profile. Choose whichever option works best for you.

Step 4 – The URL will change in the navigation bar. It will look something like this.

Your Google+ ID is hidden (sort of) in this URL. 

Find your Google+ ID and copy and paste it into the tab we opened from Step 1. 

Step 5 - Choose your button. A screen will pop up giving you the option to choose which button you would like to use.

As you click on each of the choices, you will see a  graphic display of your choice. Choose the one that works for your blog.

As you select each option the code, in the code box at the bottom of the page, will change. Make your final choice. 

Step 6 – Copy the code from the box. .

Step 7 – Paste the code into a text widget on your sidebar (for WordPress self hosted blogs).

Step 8 – Check the front of your blog to make sure the code is working properly. Here is what the button looks like in the sidebar on Sunflower Schoolhouse.

All done! Good job. 

Step 2 – Scroll down the right hand side until you come to the subheader Google+ Pages.

My sidebar currently looks like this (just to give you some idea how far you have to scroll). 

Step 3 – Click on that button. This one. 

A page will open that looks like this one. 

Step 4 – Now you need to pick a category that fits you from the list on the left and click on it.

Step 5 – No matter which option you choose, you will be prompted to fill in your information. Fill it in and click on the bright red create button.

Step 6 – You will be prompted to add a tagline and photo. This is where you can add the tagline from your blog and your blog button or a photo of yourself. Add your tagline and button or photo now.

Step 7 – Now you can take a moment to share about your new Google+ page. 

Step 8 – You have made this awesome Google+ Page, but how do you find it again? Well, you go to your Google+ home page and hover over your name. You will see grey text that says 1 page. Depending on how many pages you have, that number could be different. Click on that text. 

Here is a close up. 

Step 9 – A little box will pop up that looks something like this. 

Now you can choose if you want to post as yourself or as your page. 

That’s all folks. 

Step 1

Type your domain name (URL) into the address bar of your preferred web browser and simply add a forward slash (/) and “wp-admin” to the end of it.

Step 2

Type your username and password into the respective spaces.  Your username and password are the ones you chose when you first set up your WordPress (or had it set up for you). If you forget your password, you can always request another one by clicking“Lost your password?” You can also check “Remember Me” if you want WordPress to remember your password.

It is that simple to log in to your WordPress (self hosted).

That’s it! It is that easy. You should be seeing the dashboard.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did you know that widgets can completely and utterly destroy your blog?

I am guessing that your answer was no. Well, neither did I. I had no idea that typing something into a widget and hitting save could render my site completely useless.

So there I was, adding some simple html code to my sidebar widgets and I get an error. A big white screen popped up (where my site should have been) and said that I had a “500 internal server error”. My husband restarted the server and everything was fine (or so we thought), so I went along my merry way. A few minutes later, it happens again. And I had a twinge of panic…

My husband logged in to the server to check things out. All our other sites were fine, except mine. He was able to access the server logs (like any good web administrator should be able to do) and discovered that I had some serious widget issues. Apparently, I had been entering some of my html code incorrectly into my widgets and WordPress does not like that. It freaked out and panicked.

WordPress widgets are very complicated and poorly organized. If you mess with one part of the widget code, you stand a good chance of loosing all of your widgets. That  is what happened when I placed HTML code into the text widget for WordPress. One tag was written wrong.

I have good news though.

Before this whole “500 internal server error” thing started happening, I had a few WordPress tabs open. After my husband had fixed the mess by removing the bad code (and thus all of my widgets) I was able to still see the original code through one of the dashboard tabs that had been open (thank you Opera for caching.)  I was able to go in there and copy and paste and save all of the codes to an Open Office document. This will help greatly in rebuilding.

The cause of the “500 internal server error” was the simple failure to close some of my html tags. W3 Schools html reference list is an excellent resource that my husband has pointed me to before and I will be visiting on an ongoing basis from now on.

Let me leave you with a few suggestions:

• Might I suggest that you keep a list of your widgets with the code that should go with them (including the links) in an Open Office document (and print it out).

• Might I also suggest a folder (on your computer) for the graphics that go with your sidebar widgets (properly labeled so you can find it).