http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog en info@solidesignstudios.com Copyright 2010 2010-01-24T12:30:50+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/monitor-your-websites-uptime-free/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/monitor-your-websites-uptime-free/#When:12:30:50Z After what one of my current clients went through with their hosting company, this could not have come at a better time for both them and fellow readers. Uptime Robot offers a free website monitoring services - that's right, FREE - for up to 50 websites. Uptime Robot monitors each of your websites every five minutes to ensure that it is at 100% working order. If they discover any problems with your website, they will continue to do several checks within the next three minutes just to make sure it wasn't a minor glitch with your system. If after three minutes your website is still presenting problems, they will email an alert to you. Learn more about Uptime Robots. Points of Interest 2010-01-24T12:30:50+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/macheist-nanobundle-free/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/macheist-nanobundle-free/#When:12:30:44Z Ever heard of MacHeist nanoBundle? If you do and often crave their apps, you're in luck! For the next four days they are offering their 6 top Mac Apps, a $154 value, absolutely free. You may visit them them at www.macheist.com to learn more and get in on this fantastic deal. Points of Interest 2009-11-08T12:30:44+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/our-latest-redesign-green-chic/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/our-latest-redesign-green-chic/#When:22:06:45Z We are proud to announce our latest website redesign project, Green + Chic, a business that provides organic, natural, skin care, and bath & body products for women and babies. To view a summary of our redesign and process, visit our design portfolio page. Latest Design 2009-10-07T22:06:45+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/free-mail-chimp-for-small-businesses/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/free-mail-chimp-for-small-businesses/#When:17:03:16Z Are you just starting out as an email-marketer and would like to have access to a powerful email marketing tool with all its amenities free of cost for life? Mail Chimp is now offering a Forever Free plan where you can have up to 500 customers and send up to 3,000 emails per month. This package deal is perfect for the small business owner, new start ups, bloggers, non-profits, artists, and other small groups alike. Stop on by over at Mail Chimp and read their blog post, Freemium Email Marketing from MailChimp, to learn more. Marketing, Points of Interest 2009-09-02T17:03:16+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/facebook-anyone/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/facebook-anyone/#When:13:36:42Z We are finally alive and kicking on Facebook and have started to get a fan base. Feel free to stop over and drop us a line or two as we also have open discussions for all our fans. There is also a special promotion going on for all our FB fans between now and the end of December. See you there! FB.init("8ac54085b1e8da26609af89a1ef9a349"); News & Updates 2009-09-02T13:36:42+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/why-choose-wordpress-as-your-wcm-for-your-small-business/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/why-choose-wordpress-as-your-wcm-for-your-small-business/#When:15:40:36Z So you are ready to launch a website about your business to inform your clients about services and keep them abreast on the latest news and events with your company. However, you have done your research and acquiring an external website administrator on a regular basis to maintain your website proves to be too costly for you at this time. From the start, any designer/developer will tell you that in order to keep maintenance cost to a minimum, getting a Web Content Manager (WCM) will be your best solution. Wordpress is considered to be one of the top recommended solutions as it is proven as one of the most flexible and easy to use WCM available on the market. Best of all, it is made readily available to the general public via open source (for free) to be used in any manner conducive to each website owners’ needs. With a WCM, you will get the functionality you need at your fingertips to successfully manage and market your website without the need to acquire outside help. Subsequently, this will save you money as everything will be done in-house by you or your staff. With the following overview, you will feel more confident that Wordpress may just be the right solution for your small business. The Basics In A Nutshell Functionality Wordpress is a very flexible software that has the capabilities of integrating with many various plug-ins and custom scripting in order to provide added functionality to your website. While custom scripting and some plug-ins require a fee, many are created as open-source, which means they are free to obtain and use as you see fit. These handy add-ons are vital for the successful enhancement of your website, depending on your business needs, as well as aid in its success. Some of the most sought after plug-ins include All In One SEO Pack, Google XML Sitemaps, WP-DB Manager, My Page Order, and more. (See below for some of the highly sought after picks). A List of Several Plug-Ins In High Demand Google XML Sitemaps All In One SEO Pack Google Analytics for Wordpress Contact Form 7 Fast and Secure Contact Form NextGen Gallery Sociable WP Super Cache WP e-Commerce WP-DB Manager SEO Smart Links Broken Link Checker My Page Order My Category Order WP-Print Akismet Platinum SEO Pack Twitter for Wordpress For more plug-ins, visit Wordpress Plugin Directory. User Interface With usability in mind, Wordpress developers have created an easy-to-use web-based administration panel, where site administrators with little to no html experience can conduct their website management tasks seamlessly. Site owners are given the ability to add and/or edit their websites’ content using a built in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor without interfering with server side codes that may in turn cause potential site errors and failures. Also, you have the upper hand in the way you market your content by choosing how users interact with your website by configuring various plug-ins and pre-existing functionalities via your administration panel. In Conclusion Using a WCM such as Wordpress helps the business owner cut costs on outsourcing website maintenance projects, provided no custom scripting was performed for your business, while placing essential functionalities within the palm of the owners’ hands to effectively edit and market their own websites. As your business grows, so too does your website and this flexibility is essential for the administrator in the successful creation and upload of newly created and modified content. This will in turn leave you with more money in your pocket to invest in other areas of your business, such as advertising. Wordpress 2009-08-31T15:40:36+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/small-business-website-special/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/small-business-website-special/#When:02:46:26Z Become a fan of SoLi Design Studios on Facebook and keep up to date on current and new promotions we will be carrying. General 2009-08-10T02:46:26+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/the-smashing-book-is-now-available-for-pre-order/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/the-smashing-book-is-now-available-for-pre-order/#When:22:35:18Z The Smashing Book isn't scheduled to be released until late September, however, Smashing Magazine has made pre-ordering available to all their valued readers at a whopping 20% off the regular price. The Smashing Book is a book in print about current web practices as well as best practices in modern user interface development, and how to utilize marketing principles to increase conversion rates. To learn more about what is completely covered in this book and or to pre-order your very own copy, visit Smashing Magazine at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/05/the-smashing-book-pre-order-now-and-save-20/. Points of Interest 2009-08-05T22:35:18+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/web-express-websites/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/web-express-websites/#When:17:03:35Z We understand that new, upcoming small proprietorships would like a professional online representation for their businesses but do ot have the necessary budget right away for the development of their own unique-branded website. Because of this, we have created Web Express, a service that provides you with several professionally designed layouts to choose from for your website. All our basic website express plans are ready within as little as five days and includes the following: Logo Upload One custom feedback/contact form Below is a gallery featuring a few of our Web Express layouts currently available. Web Express Layouts News & Updates 2009-07-09T17:03:35+00:00 http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/overkill-blackberry-theme/ http://solidesignstudios.com/weblog/overkill-blackberry-theme/#When:03:43:23Z I am a big fan of grunge/distressed graphics design and for this very reason I couldn't resist acquiring this kind of theme for my smartphone. I've found Overkill to be one of my favorite theme to date and just had to help spread. Points of Interest 2009-06-30T03:43:23+00:00