As a designer and developer for many years the answer to the above question should be simple, a piece of cake, but it wasn’t. It took a series of life’s most unfortunate events to put it all together for me, an arrow to the obvious, an alarm to slam on the brakes and take drastic measures.

So what are these drastic measure? What could have possibly altered my view on Schibelli.com and why is it being done. It simple, life happened. Schibelli.com was a direct reflection of what was going on in my life and career. It was going nowhere, just spinning it’s wheels in virtual mud so being that said I decided to turn schibelli.com into something that it should have been all along, a “Showpiece”.

I know what your saying, “yeah, we heard this before John” but that’s where your wrong. In order to accomplish what I am about to set off on here is what is going to happen:

1. The existing Schibelli.com will be completely removed
2. A new database will be developed
3. The back-end will focus on:
• Security
• Database Management and control
• Functionality and growth built into the admin area using custom PHP scripts and table creation.
• Database monitoring
4. A complete redesign of the front end that allows for
• Custom post types
• Custom page types
• VLog
• Blog
• Scripting samples
• Scripting Demos
• Design samples
• a robust contact method
5. The design will incorporate
• JavaScript (menu system)
• JQuery
• Easy search methods

So there it is, laid out in the simplest of terms. Schibelli.com as you know it is going to be no longer. instead, in it’s place a showpiece of what is current on the web. A place to call my own and demonstrate my abilities to the world. The whole website will be a display is what is possible.

With a professional website design, technical skills are applied to the process of web application design. It is important for businesses to invest in professional websites that can expand their customer base. Understanding what the targeted customers require and their expectations can serve to guide the process of creating a professional website design.

The innovation and creative flair of the website owner is reflected through a professional website design according to web experts. This does not mean the designs have to be complex. Web designers can transform simple aspects and integrate them in a way that will be visually appealing.

Visitors are attracted to websites that are designed well. With the professional application of logos, color, images and graphics, the visitors are bound to be interested. The space between the content of the site is also a reflection of an organized website owner. Website content should be evident from the entire appearance of the site.

Various goals such as search engine optimization, animation and content management can be achieved with the use of a professional company design. Specialized designers come up with designs based on the requirements and objectives of their clients and proceed to develop these designs into functional systems.

To achieve success with a professional website design, it is essential for the company’s goals to be clearly understood. Once these needs are understood, professional designers are able to assess web design objectives and how these objectives can grow the business. From website development to online marketing, professional website design is a guarantee of quality development solutions. A website should be a realization and reflection of one’s ideas and visions that have been transformed into reality through a competently designed website.

A website should ideally be professional, customized and cost effective. Online businesses have the potential to be highly profitable because a large number of people have access to websites. The competitive environment makes it challenging to succeed and this why it pays to invest in professional web designers.

The final consideration for professional web designers is the use of accurate and clean codes. Though this is not obvious to the ordinary web user, compliant coding determines how well a website performs, ranks and is listed on the search engines.

Web design article written by Evosite website designers- experts in photography web design and seo strategies.

Source: http://www.stratus.net/professional-website-planning/

To operate a business today without the benefit of an online presence is particularly hard. The convenience and plethora of data attainable over the Internet has created an anticipation that any serious business should have a website supplying at minimal contact data and a fundamental summary of the services and/or commodities they have at hand.

Today almost every institution regardless of size or field of company has some sort of web site or blog reachable online. For the customer this is an excellent resource, available 24 hours a day and in the privateness of the home as well.

For the firm owner having a repository to post itemized information concerning the services one provides, business convictions, product catalogues, pictures, videos, and itemized descriptions of wares including prices, supplies a fantastic marketing opportunity.

Herein lies the predicament; every single opposing firm owner knows these identical findings. Even for somewhat obscure business’ there can be literally thousands of (if not more) vying web sites, supplying comparable wares or services, competing for the comparable top billing spots.

When the ordinary consumer decides to look up a business on the Computer network 69.5 percent of the time he or she will use Google to accomplish the search (according to research firm Hitwise for f.y.2008). Yahoo and Microsoft make up the lion’s share of the outstanding search queries with AOL coming in a remote 4th (although AOL actually uses Google’s results).

According to marketing research conducted by Chitika, a search based advertising network, the top ‘organic’ location in Google drove 34.35% of all transactions in the sampling. This was roughly equal to the collective traffic from positions 2 through 5, and was more than the combined total of positions 5 through 20. Organic spot number 1 is worth very nearly exactly double what organic spot number 2 is worth, and the decrease is steep after that. This is what I like to call the Google ‘Sweet Spot’.

Achieving that coveted number 1 organic spot on Google for a particular keyword phrase can double the volume of commerce a website can assume to receive over the second position. For an online firm today, with margins as slight as they are now, this could be the distinction between business success and business failure.

Internet Marketing Article written by i-Fluid Media Ltd. I-Fluid are a leading internet marketing company boasting experienced and talented Search Engine Marketing, PPC & SEO Consultants.

Source: http://www.stratus.net/seo-%e2%80%93-how-can-higher-location-in-google-enhance-my-business-and-sales-do-i-need-seo/

What certifications can I get?

There are many certifications for you to explore. The main certifications are the Adobe certifications. For students just learning how to be a designer and working with the software a great start is the Adobe ACA Certification that shows basic knowledge in a particular software program. For more advanced users the Adobe ACE (Adobe Certified expert) certification is a higher level certification designed to test your proficiency in a particular software program, such as  Illustrator. The list goes on and on so at the end of the article I will list all the types of certifications that are out there that are of importance.

What should be my first step?

This is the easiest step out of all of them. This is where you have to do a little soul searching and figure out what are you more proficient in. It usually begins with what is demand. For example, you are very proficient in Photoshop, so you should get the certification for Photoshop. After you pass your exam you will become an ACE in Photoshop CS4.

Is there a limit to how many certifications I can get?

No. It all depends on how much you are willing to invest into your certifications. The more the better but remember Adobe is on a 18  month update cycle. That means you have 90 days to get your recertification after they release an updated version of the software you tested in.

Will it help me if I get certified?

Yes! Most employers look at hundreds of resumes. Anyone can put they are an expert at Photoshop, but how many have a seal of approval from Adobe that they are truly a certified expert. Employers will favor someone with an ACE verses someone without.

What is an Adobe ACI Certification?

The ACI certification is the highest level certification you can get. The ACI Certification is for professionals that have a teaching background and want to become a Adobe Certified Instructor. To become an ACI is not easy but the perks are worth it. Usually, an ACI can command $400 for each class day that is taught so if you have your week booked solid you can easily bring in $2000 a week. Most ACI’s are booked solid.

How do I become and ACI?

The ACI Certifications consist of multiple certifications combined to make one, the holy grail, the ACI. First you need to take and pass an ACE exam. After you pass that you are required to take the CompTIA CTT+ Certification which is in two parts. The first part is a standard exam of 95 questions that you must complete in 90 minutes. The second part is a 17 to 20 minute video of you teaching in a classroom environment. You must pass BOTH in order to recieve the CTT+. Once you jump through those hoops you must fill out an application to Adobe for consideration to convert your ACE to an ACI for that particular software. Beware, you are ONLY an ACI for that software but if you have multiple ACE certs then you can convert each one of those to ACI. Then you sit back and pat yourself on the back because you just climb mount everest.

Static Design Days Are Over!
Website coding is undergoing a creative change with more functionality and interactivity. Conventionally used HTML/CSS is being replaced with JavaScript, AJAX and JQUERY. People love Flash but fear to use it because it curbs usability. To overcome this problem, creative coding scripts are used to replace Flash, yet still give the same effects. Check out this website for a demo: spritely.net

Rising Fame of Grids, Mobile and Retro Designs
Grid designs are mostly used in designing portfolio or product promotion pages, and they are seldom used for corporate and business sites. These all one=page designs add interactivity to the site and simplifies only the prominent things for the visitors, thus limiting their searching confusions.

Print’s On Web!
Print designs, including layout and print typography, are shifting onto web with a great speed. Web designers of today seem increasingly interested in print designs which include considerable white space, large fonts, huge headlines, multi-column content, organization of elements, and so on.

Better Performance In “All” Browsers
With the growth of several web browsers, you never know which browser is being used by your users. This implies web designers to create a design that equally conforms to all the browsers including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

Development of Interactive Platforms
With the development and popularity of certain social networks like Facebook and Twitter, web designers are focusing on making websites that are highly interactive, informative and provide users the opportunity of participation as well.

Easy Navigation Is The Need Of Time!
In order to improve usability and user-friendliness, more interactive and communicative designs are being created. More focus is being paid to sites that can be easily navigated and browsed by the users.

Slab Typefaces for More Prominence
Slab typefaces are employed to highlight certain elements on a website, like the Logo. Similar to large headers, slab typefaces are exceedingly being used in the current year.

Solid and Powerful Typography
Online users don’t like reading small crammed text and simply scan the page to know what’s being said. In order to facilitate this user behavior, large and solid typography is being used in heading, subheading and between paragraph quotations.

Overview of Current Web Design Trends
Here are some of the recent website designing trends you must explore to make your design current:

• Embossing
• PNG transparency
• rich user Interfaces
• Font replacement
• Huge Images
• Modal boxes (A much better type of pop-up that is also user-friendly)
• Media blocks
• The magazine look
• Carousels (slideshow navigations that rotate text horizontally and vertically)
• Introduction blocks (to display important message upfront)

Custom Appearance
Custom built designs are being used to attract more prospects, add business value and ensure competitiveness. Online world is about ‘who’s the best’ which can’t be achieved through using common web design templates.

Tweak your old website with these latest web design trends and features, and see how it takes your business a step higher. Good luck!

The inevitable and by far the most important industry that is, the web development industry is constantly evolving. In this ever-growing, fast-paced industry it becomes really important to predict a future and its course of development over the years. Where almost the whole set of economy is either directly or indirectly based on this development, its actually pretty easy to see the stand in the coming years/months.

“Feel free to comment or share if you liked it. I welcome all feedback. Also make sure to subscribe to the feed if you haven’t already for the latest articles”

~John

If you are familiar with how you create a custom theme utilizing WordPress as your CMS then you are familiar with the amount of CSS that is involved to style your site for the masses. I plan on blogging about how to make a CSS based site using WordPress to power your CMS. In the meantime I would like to discuss how to use the database to parse your CSS

A popular ability in WordPress themes is to add custom CSS driven by options. This brings up a common question, how should the theme inject custom CSS? I’ll outline three different approaches on how to do this. These aren’t new, many people have written about these; forums, blog posts, email lists and IRC. I’m still seeing questions about this though, so I wanted to address this specific question with specific solutions.

For the purposes of code examples I’ll assume that you have an option called my_background_color and that you want to do something like this:

body {
    background-color:
}

We’ll start with the simplest method.

header.php
Most themes have a header.php file that contains template code for the top of the HTML output. This makes it easy to add custom CSS with options, just echo it out inside the HEAD section of the HTML:

<!--
body {
    background-color:
}
-->

The advantages to this approach is that it’s very simple, you already have a header.php so adding a few more lines doesn’t take much work. The disadvantage is that this solution isn’t very flexible, if you have complex rules about when and how to include the CSS then your header.php file gets a lot extra “stuff” that may not need for every page.

If your needs are simple then this works great. If not, I suggest using either wp_head or parse_request.

wp_head
Each theme calls a WordPress action at the end of the HTML HEAD section – wp_head – that can be used to include the custom CSS:

<!--
<style type='text/css'>
body {
    background-color:
}
-->
 
The only real difference between this approach and the previous one is that it’s less clutter in<code> header.php</code>. Instead of having all that code in header.php it can be moved out to a separate file and WordPress will include it at runtime whenever the <code>wp_head</code> action fires.
 
<strong>parse_reques</strong>t
 
WordPress can provide your theme with custom URLs, these can turn around and serve up what ever you want, including CSS. This technique takes a little bit more work, but provides the maximum degree of flexibility. There are a couple steps to this one, first what you’ll need to have in <code>header.php</code>:
 
The my-custom-content=css just needs to be something unique to your theme so that it doesn’t conflict with plugins that might be using <code>parse_request</code> as well.
 
Next we need to tell WordPress how we want to handle this request:
 
<pre lang="LANGUAGE">add_action( 'parse_request', 'my_custom_wp_request' );
function my_custom_wp_request( $wp ) {
    if (
        !empty( $_GET['my-custom-content'] )
        &amp;&amp; $_GET['my-custom-content'] == 'css'
    ) {
        # get theme options
        header( 'Content-Type: text/css' );
?&gt;
 
body {
    background-color:
}
 
A few things in there that I want to point out. Pay attention to line 8, this tells the browser what sort of content we are sending back. In this case it was CSS, but it could have been JavaScript or anything else. Also note that I didn’t add any cache related headers, it’s worth reading up on cache control in HTTP headers so that you know how that works. Line 16 is also important, we don’t want WordPress attempting to do any further processing after we return the CSS so the right thing to do is exit as soon as possible.
 
And if you wanted to keep the CSS in a separate file ( <code>custom-css.php</code> for our example ) that looked more like a normal CSS file then the <code>my_custom_wp_request </code>function could look like:
 
<pre lang="LANGUAGE">function my_custom_wp_request( $wp ) {
    if (
        !empty( $_GET['my-custom-content'] )
        &amp;&amp; $_GET['my-custom-content'] == 'css'
    ) {
        # get theme options
        header( 'Content-Type: text/css' );
        require dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/custom-css.php';
        exit;
    }
}
allowing your <code>custom-css.php</code> to look like:

basically just enough PHP to fill in the option blanks, other wise a normal looking CSS file. I rather like this approach, it provides a nice degree of separation and control.

Conclusion
Now you have three methods for including database powered CSS in your WordPress theme. I like using parse_request with the CSS in a separate file ( the last example ), for a little bit of extra work you get lots of flexibility and a nice layer of separation that makes managing the CSS portion easier.

“Feel free to comment or share if you liked it. I welcome all feedback. Also make sure to subscribe to the feed if you haven’t already for the latest WordPress tutorials”

~John