by Laura | May 10, 2017 | top resources
Websites:
Website Grader — quick and easy look at how any website is performing and where there is room for improvement
All-in-One WP Migration — a WordPress plugin that allows easy duplication of website content from one domain or subdomain to another
Divi extras
DiviSpace — pre-made landing pages and tutorials for Divi
Social Media
Buffer — easy-to-use and affordable social media scheduler. If you only have a few social media accounts to manage and you post content that is yours or that you find on your own, Buffer could be a great choice. Supports RSS feeds. Offers free basic account
Social Pilot — not quite as easy to use as Buffer, but offers more features for a low price. Supports up to 100 connect social media profiles for just $9.99/month — the best deal I’ve been able to find anywhere. Supports RSS feeds and provides content discovery by topic. Offers free basic account. One downside of Social Pilot, for me, is that it does not allow posts to be dragged and dropped around the schedule easily, as does Buffer. Still, the amount of accounts connected and the features, for the price, make it a winner for me.
UnfollowerStats — an easy way to track your followers and unfollowers on Twitter, and find interesting Twitter feeds
Design:
Canva — create great graphics for social media and websites
Unsplash — absolutely free beautiful photos for your website and social media
Stocksnap.io — another great site for free and beautiful images
by Laura | May 8, 2017 | web development and blogging
Many people build their websites live. That is, they set up a domain name, get it hosted, install WordPress and a WordPress theme (if using those), and get to work.
New websites rarely have an audience anyway so having your ongoing drafts viewable as you go isn’t really an issue.
But what if you are redesigning and rewriting an existing site. You probably don’t want your site visitors to see all that construction in progress. So you can maintain your current site as is and build your new site behind the scenes on a sub-domain. And setting that up is easy.
You will go to the C-panel on your hosting company’s website. I use Bluehost but all hosting companies with a C-panel should be similar. Click on ‘domains’ then ‘sub-domains.’ It will then allow you to name your sub-domain, which will be a prefix of your site. So the sub-domain name will look like this: testing.yoursitename.com. Or perhaps staging.yoursitename.com. You decide what you want the sub-domain name to be. It will also ask you to name the Home folder. If you don’t name it, it will give it the same name as the sub-domain, which is what you want anyway so you can leave it blank.
Hit ‘create.’ That’s it. Your sub-domain is set-up. Now you will just install WordPress and a theme, and begin building your site as if it were your main site.
by Laura | May 6, 2017 | top resources
Why reinvent the wheel? Here Canva provides 50 gorgeous color scheme examples that you can use for your brand and website — or use it as inspiration to develop a color scheme that is completely your own.
