May « 2009 « Radkitten

Archive for May, 2009

Looking For Portfolio Project

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

I’d like to show diversity in my portfolio by adding different types of work. Right now I have a custom Wordpress theme, a custom website layout, and a template revamp. I’m looking into adding installation and customization of scripts and website optimization. There are a few more things, but right now I’m going to focus on these. If you’re interested in getting these services free of charge, please comment here and I’ll reply back to you via email.

Today I decided that the Flickr link I had above wasn’t serving the purposes I had planned, so I’ve changed it to a Technorati link. Please click the Technorati link and add it as a favorite. You can also help me out by blogging about one of my posts or my site on your own blog and I will certainly return the favor.

I added a plugin to the site but wasn’t using it, and I found it broke my CSS validation. I didn’t realize that could happen, so I wanted to remind everyone to check their validation regularly, especially after adding plugins, etc. I also spent an hour trying to fix a problem that wasn’t in the CSS at all, but in the image code of an entry where Wordpress had added a bunch of unnecessary hooplah. That’s all cleared out now and I’m 100% CSS Valid again. XHTML Validation is going to be much more difficult because some of its issues are in my technorati link and inside Wordpress functions (the tag cloud). For the most part, though, it’s good.

Hoping to add some new content today as well. Looking for affiliates.

Tags: projects, radkitten, technorati, valid
Posted in Site Updates | 5 Comments »

13 Texture Photos

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Here are thirteen texture photos for you to use in your graphics. They were all taken by me with my Nikon Coolpix, because my D60 was dead. I’m also entering these in the Thursday Thirteen and I hope that each week I’ll be able to bring you a new pack of resources to keep up with the Meme.

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen below.

thurs13

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Tags: 13, photos, Resources, textures
Posted in Graphics, Stock Photos | 15 Comments »

Wordpress Notes

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

When I’m creating a Wordpress them or editting one, I usually clip out snippets of coding and paste them into notepad incase I’ll need them later. You never know what you’re going to mess up or why, so it’s good to have the original coding to be able to slap back in whenever you need to. Sometimes, I want to keep that coding and saving notepad files in random places around my desktop has worked, but it’s not extremely efficient because when I save them I save them as the date I made them, and if I don’t know what the date was when I saved the clip I need.. well, you get the picture. So what I’ve started doing is saving notes in my wordpress theme. It’s easy to do without a plugin (though it’d be nice to have one).

Open notepad and save the empty file as notepad.php
Open your theme’s folder in FTP
Upload the notepad.php file to the same folder as your other theme files
Go to your Theme Editor and click on notepad.php
Paste in your code with some guides that will explain to you what the code snippets are about

So it’s extremely easy and truly has been a life saver at times.

Tags: wfmw, wordpress
Posted in Personal Notes, Website Tips, Wordpress | 5 Comments »

Getting Work Done

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

There’s a slight pause in content updating for a few days because I’m working on some new projects and some behind-the-scenes work on the blog.

lemon

I’m working on a design for a parenting blog, topsites, message board, and whatever else could possibly be put onto a site. A project like this will reward me with about $250 or more. This screen shot is a preview of the layout I’ve drawn up so far in Photoshop. It uses a daisy illustration and kind of reminds me of an old ad in the 70’s. Maybe not. Either way, it’s been extremely time consuming and I’m looking forward to having it finished and being about to post the result.

I’ve also been working on some things on this site. I’ve been working on the Portfolio page (which I realize is pretty empty) and I added a contact form as well. The Services page is nearly complete but I keep feeling like it’s missing something. It’s hard to sum up everything I’m capable of. I also noticed that, while I claim to be valid CSS and XHTML, my site actually wasn’t. So I’ve spent some time getting the CSS valid (yay) and now I’m working on making the site valid XHTML. You can see I crossed it out down there at the bottom. That really leaves the About page and the Order page completely untouched, but they will come in due time.

I have plans with a friend to make a new site and a few other projects, but I think the one we’re going to work on first is the site. I’m not going to say what it is because I’ve had ideas stolen before, but I’m really excited about it. She may have to design it though cuz I’m feeling a little tapped creatively.

Lastly, I’m working on plans for the first Radkitten Contest, to be held as soon as my content pages are done. I think any time before then is just wrong, why have people come to an incomplete site? So keep an eye out for that, too. I’m thinking that will start about June 21 and run through July 1. I’m really excited about that, too.

Blog content is aplenty when your blog is as new as mine, so I’d like someone to suggest a tutorial or guide or resource they’d like. I want to put up content my readers want. Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Tags: projects, radkitten, valid
Posted in Site Updates | 7 Comments »

Wordpress Plugins I Use

Monday, May 25th, 2009

:: I have added plugins to this list to resubmit for Thursday Thirteen 06/04/2009.

I thought it would be helpful to list the wordpress plugins I use on my own sites and tell you why. I use these plugins because they make maintaining a blog easier and therefore multiple blogs as well. Wordpress has thousands of plugins, which is why it’s my CMS of choice. There are many options out there, but Wordpress is the only one that can do anything and everything, all on the same script. If I want to open a store, create a magazine, anything I want to do is possible with Wordpress and its plugins. It makes it hard to imagine why anyone would choose anything else.

Akismet – This comes with your Wordpress blog and you should enable it right away to keep spam comments to a minimum.

Bubs Button Board – Everyone likes to get a free link, so add this to your site. Get them to come to post their own links, then get them to stay with your great design and content.

Contact Form 7 - Great contact form script with multiple forms. Very easy to use.

Clean Archives – Shows a list of your archives in a page in a clean, easy to read format.

Do Follow – I use this plugin on my personal site because I don’t really care about page rank or anything and I think it’s fair that my commenters get link credit.

FlareSmith – A plugin to match my Feedburner account with my blog.

FlickrRSS – Allows me to display my most recent Flickr photos right on my blog. They’re listed at the bottom of my sidebar.

Get Recent Comments – Allows me to show appreciation to my commenters by listing their link in my sidebar with “do follow”.

I Am Reading – Displays the book you’re currently reading, the page you’re on, and the link to buy it from your Amazon Associate account. Good little way to make some extra money.

Link Hopper – Allows you to mask outside links as links to pages on your own site. This looks good to the search engines giving your site a higher rank.

Really Simple CAPTCHA – Adds Captcha to forms on your site. Used with the contact form or on your posts.

TwitMe – Twitme posts on your Twitter when you post a new post, and also lets you post to twitter from your Wordpress admin. I have separate twitter accounts for my portfolio, my personal site, and my hosting site so this helps me manage them all without having to go crazy trying to remember which one I’m signed in to.

WP-PageNavi – Makes navigation my pages easier. Takes out the “Previous Entries” and lists them as page numbers.

I’m always looking for new, good plugins to enhance my site. If you know of any really great plugins that would be useful, please list them here.

Tags: flickr, plugins, rss, twitter, wordpress
Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »