The First Step

Psychealth

First Step Recent Websites

Psychealth is great blog for information on self help. The layout is simple and is essentially the home for articles on Psychology by Blog Author and Psychologist Lynne Campbell-Gillies.

How do I build my own Website

Blogging for the Newby

How to begin putting together your Website….

Firstly, the most exciting part of setting up a website is to think up the domain name for your site. If your business is localised, stick to a localised domain name relevant to your country. This will ensure that your target market can see you are local. Too many local business fancy a .com domain name, and scare the locals away. Who can import a carpet cleaner to clean their carpets from overseas? Then focus on your content. Without content there is no website. Ask yourself the following questions: Who are you, How do you want to show yourself to the World, How can people get in touch with you, How can you reach out to your clients.

? Compiling Your Site..

Sketch out some rough A4 pages and focus on layout of your website, name the menu items, decide how many pages your site will need to reach your audiences. Now begin collecting your content. Also decide on the design. The best way forward is to search for sites you like that resonate with how you see your own website.From here you can take your ideas and concepts to your Graphic Designer. Be sure that your Web Designer and Graphic Designer are either a one-stop-shop or put them in touch with each other so that design specs can match the website structure.

Now it is time to decide on the platform of your website. Do you want a static website built in XHTML? This is great for fast page loads and for sites that do not need to regularly update their content. Or more commonly, you may require a CMS platform, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and more. One any of these platforms you will be able to manage your content yourself. You can edit pages, add galleries, update, blog, socialise, monetise and more. This is the exciting part, and be sure to choose a platform that you will be comfortable with, so do some research and Google the user-friendliness of the CMS that your web-developer recommends, as this will be your baby for the lifespan of your business.

Finally, enjoy the development process, and know that a website is not a once-off purchase, but an ongoing evolving organism floating in cyberspace. The more time and energy you put into your website, the more you will reap the benefits! Good Luck.

Posting to Social Networks via your RSS Feed

Blogging for the Newby, WordPress How To's

Twitter Feed and Facebook ImagesThere are a number of tools out there that integrate your Social Networks such as Facebook Pages, Twitter Feeds, LinkedIn profiles to name the most popular, with your WordPress run website or blog. Testing these different tools can have many different results. Starting with Twitter Feed which I found worked wonderfully for this website, I set it up on some client’s sites and began to encounter strange glitches, such as the way Facebook picked up images from posts, or at least, could not select the correct image, so for now I have uncovered a possible solution which I will test out and post on further once results have been identified. The test is to specify the Featured image in the WordPress post so that Facebook does not confuse this with any other random images it may find on a page.

Visit again soon to find out more on other Social Networking plugins that can integrate WordPress and your Social Networks in one foul swoop!

Posting to Social Networks from WordPress

WordPress How To's

Twitter Feed and Facebook ImagesThere are a number of tools out there that integrate your Social Networks such as Facebook Pages, Twitter Feeds, LinkedIn profiles to name the most popular, with your WordPress run website or blog. Testing these different tools can have many different results. Starting with Twitter Feed which I found worked wonderfully for this website, I set it up on some client’s sites and began to encounter strange glitches, such as the way Facebook picked up images from posts, or at least, could not select the correct image, so for now I have uncovered a possible solution which I will test out and post on further once results have been identified. The test is to specify the Featured image in the WordPress post so that Facebook does not confuse this with any other random images it may find on a page.

Visit again soon to find out more on other Social Networking plugins that can integrate WordPress and your Social Networks in one foul swoop!

Fifty Shades of Blu Wedding Website

First Step Recent Websites

fifty-shades-of-blu-wedding-website

Wedding Websites South Africa

Custom Built Wedding Websites are a superb way to invite your friends and family to your wedding. Showcase your venue, have a custom RSVP page where guests can select their meal preferences, and of course your Registry and Accommodation options if your Wedding is out of town. This site has had graphics custom designed by the bride and is a beautiful integration of her theme Fifty Shades of Blu.

Capital Video

First Step Recent Websites

This is a nifty WordPress Blog for a film industry site. It as a feature that captures thumbnails of websites belonging to clients, and displays them in a neat gallery on the Client Page. Other than that the business is based in Cape Town and the website is developed in WordPress.

Mushroom Lodge

First Step Recent Websites

Mushroom Lodge

Mushroom Lodge is build for a client in Zambia. The site is the home of an exclusive game lodge in Zambia. The site has a multitude of WordPress features such as galleries, slideshows, social networking, Weather Updates for the area, a bookings page, a blog and newsletter feature and other related WordPress plugins.