WordPress was initially started by the developers as blogging software. A blog is a term used for an online journal, diary or serial, published by a person or a group of people. Blogs to start with were generally personal in nature, reflecting the opinions and interests of the creator and owner. However, recently blogs have developed into an important tool in the world of business, politics, and entertainment. Everybody gets a chance to voice their opinions and you do not really need someone else to do the job for you.

Posts are the main element or content of a blog. Posts can be of any form such as writings, compositions and discussions and blogs also provide the readers with the option of learning more about the blog’s owner and guest authors and to interact with them. Posts, in most cases, are the lifeline of a blog. It is only what gets written in the blog that helps the blog to exist. With no content, there is no blog. To facilitate the post writing process, WordPress provides an authoring tool with flexible modules that can be used as per the user’s preference. It contains all features to help the author and the simple drag and drop facility makes changing things extremely convenient. The dashboard quick press module is also one of the features it provides, it makes it easy to quickly write and publish a post.

WordPress is one of the finest personal publishing platforms with a spotlight on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is free to use and priceless in terms of its usage. WordPress offers easy to use back end functions for writing content and making other changes to your site. It has numerous themes and plugins which are again mostly free. With WordPress it is also very easy to build your own theme or customize an existing one.  A blog is also integrated with pictures, images, sounds, and movies. This variety in media offered boosts and enriches the blog’s content. WordPress offers a straightforward and easy method of inserting media directly into posts along with a scheme to upload media that can be later attached to posts.

An important part of the posting process is assigning posts to categories. Each post in WordPress is filed under one or more categories. In addition to categories, keywords called tags can be assigned to each post. Tags also act as navigation tools. Post categories and tags are called post meta data. Post meta data refers to information associated with each post and includes author’s name, date and post categories. Besides post meta data, Meta is the HTML tag used to describe and define a web page to the World Wide Web. After a post is made, a reader can respond, via comments, to that post, and in turn, authors may reply. Comments enable the communication process and facilitate learning as well.

Flexibility and versatility are the most important features of WordPress and that is exactly why it is the most preferred blogging media today.

Hello Everyone,

We would like to take this post to let you know that our team of consultants are here to help.  Our consultants are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our company, website design and development information, software solutions, etc.  We are here to help your eBusiness along to success and so, whatever you need, we would be happy to provide.

You can connect with us by phone (CAN 1 (226) 220-3156, USA 1 (347) 783-6986), email (info@designtm.ca) or instant messaging (Skype: “tmdesignca”) and we would be to answer any of your questions or help you to find what you need.

- TM Design “Professional, Affordable, Reliable”

Happy New Year!

It has been a busy couple months for the TM Design team, but with a few large site launches in December and January, we are looking forward to a great year!

Please take a look at our latest launch found at www.thevitalgroup.ca.  The Vital Group is a marketing agency based out of Toronto, Ontario.  Here is a small clip from their About page:

“At The Vital Group, we are committed to making a powerful difference in the business lives of our clients. Small enough to fully concentrate on the specific needs of our individual clients, we are still sizeable enough to offer an impressive array of marketing design and communication resources and strategies. Our specialized approach offers flexibility, rapid response, total understanding and commitment to your needs, and the belief that earning your business is a privilege – one that we don’t take lightly.

If you’re looking for another conventional marketing agency with mass-produced materials and a “one size fits all” approach to promoting your company, then please keep looking! Our dedicated group offers a team of highly talented and creative professionals who bring years of focused expertise to the table, in a more familiar and personal environment.

Because of our specialized backgrounds and disciplines, we not only focus on the project or task at hand, but also never lose sight of the complete picture, always keeping in mind both the short and long-term goals of the client. We approach each undertaking as another step in developing and encouraging long-term relationships and partnerships with our clients – a process, not just a project. This allows us to better understand, develop and realize your vision, as we work with you and not for you.”

- The Vital Group (www.thevitalgroup.ca)

Thanks for reading!

- TM Design “Professional, Affordable, Reliable”

We have found that many personal bloggers out there are purchasing WordPress templates from sites like www.themeforest.net in order to give their site a unique look. I would encourage those looking for a unique look to go the custom template route and hire a designer (Note: Make sure the designer has worked in WordPress before) and a WordPress developer. We offer both services including installing a template and setting up the blog for you as well as custom design.

Having said that already, you may not have the time or money to get a custom template done, and so, here is a quick guide to installing and configuring a template in 5 Simple Steps:

Step 1: Find a Theme You Like
Time: 30 to 60 Minutes

Search through the free or premium themes on sites like themeforest.net and choose one you like. It may take a while before you find something that you like, however, it will be worth your while to take a bit of time and find something you really like. Purchase the theme (Price can range anywhere between $20 USD and $150 USD) and download the files onto your computer.

Step 2: Download and Upload WordPress Files
20 to 30 Minutes

Go to the WordPress site and download the latest version of WordPress available. Unzip and upload to the directory you would like your site to be found at.

Step 3: Create a Database
Time: 10 to 20 Minutes

Assuming you have already purchased your domain name and hosting package (We recommend hostgator.com), you will need to set up a database next. Log into your hosting admin panel (Login details and login url should be sent with hosting info) and go to the database administration section. You will need to create a database name, database username and database password. Write down all three fields in order to remember the details later on.

Step 4: Install and Configure WordPress
Time 20 to 30 Minutes

To install WordPress go to the directory where you uploaded the WordPress files (ie. www.yourdomain.com) and follow the instructions. You will be creating a configuration file through following the online instructions. The installation process will ask for your database information and admin details as well.

Step 5: Install and Activate Purchased Theme
Time 5 to 10 Minutes

Unzip your theme folder (Downloaded in Step 1) and upload the theme under the following directory:

www.yourdomain.com/wp-content/themes/

Next, go to your WordPress installations back end and click on “Appearance”, and then “Themes”. You should see your new theme listed. Click on the theme and choose “Activate”. Refresh your website, and you should see it activated.

You have now installed your new theme! You will probably want to upload your logo and start to insert pages, posts, widgets and plugins in order to personalize your new theme. There is usually a manual on how to manipulate your new theme included with your theme download.

Let us know if you have any WordPress questions or comments. Let us know if you want us to blog about anything in particular (Procedures in WordPress, Website Design and Development Topics in General, etc.). As always, check out TM Designs’ offered services!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment!

- TM Design “Professional, Affordable, Reliable”

For our first official blog post, we thought we would list what we consider the 9 most essential WordPress plugins.  We use these plugins a lot for ourselves as well as each client.

However, first, we need to introduce WordPress quickly.  Wordpress is a content management system (CMS) that allows you as the owner of the site to add, edit and delete the content of your website.  You can add pages, posts, and pictures as well as monitor trackbacks and comments.  As a side note, TM Design uses WordPress for most of our clients’ websites, so if  you are looking for someone to help you out with WordPress, we would be happy to answer your questions and even design and develop your WordPress site.

WordPress plugins are installed in order to add usability functions to the site (ie. Contact Form, Photo Gallery, SEO, etc.).  There are tonnes of plugins on the market, however we caution you to download the plugins from the WordPress.org directory in order to avoid corrupted files.  So let’s get started (finally):

Akismet

Akismet is an essential plugin that blocks spam comments on your blog.  You need a WordPress.com API Key to use the plugin (Sign up at WordPress.com to get an API Key), however it only takes a few minutes to install and configure!

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

All in One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack is a great plugin in order to create Meta tags to drastically increase their in-site search engine optimization.  The All in One SEO Pack adds fields to each page and post where you can input the Meta Title, Description and Keywords.  This plugin is highly recommended and quite easy to use.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Contact Form 7

There are many contact form plugins on the market for WordPress, however we use this plugin for our websites.  As you can see at http://www.designtm.ca/contact-us/ the plugin creates an organized, clean looking form.  In the back end, the plugin adds a new menu item allowing you to easily edit the forms fields.  The back end will provide a simple piece of code that you can insert into the contact page html tab.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Google XML Sitemaps

The Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML sitemap for your site that Google will recognize.  Although the back end plugin configuration is a bit more challenging for the average user, it won’t take long to create your sitemap.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

Maintenance Mode

This plugin is quite useful for the developers out there.  Maintenance mode, when enabled through the back end allows a landing page for your site visitors letting them know that the site is currently under construction and will be back up in a few minutes, however for the developer logged in through the back end the site will appear as live.  From the back end, the Maintenance Mode landing page content is easy to edit.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maintenance-mode/

Social Media Page

The Social Media Page plugin incorporates your social media networks onto a page or widget.  The back end provides an exceptionally long list of social networks with fields for your username.  Once enabled, the plugin posts the social networks that you input a username for and adds a simple link.  Your viewers can then click to your Facebook, Twitter, etc. page.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-media-page/

Twitter Widget Pro

This plugin allows you to post a widget on your pages giving people your latest twitter updates (you can set the number listed as well) with linked @ and # symbols integrated.  The plugin can even insert your profile picture!  With an amazing amount of options, this Twitter plugin is quite impressive!

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-widget-pro/

WordPress Google Analytics Reports

This plugin brings your Google Analytics reports straight to your WordPress back end dashboard.  Input your Google Analytics username and password and select your Google Analytics account to set up.  Detailed charts will show you your site traffic (visitors, pageviews and new visitors), your global audience, keywords, etc.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-analytics/

WordPress Popup Scheduler

This plugin may only be relevant to a few sites, however, we use the plugin to introduce new TM Design visitors to the site.  From the back end, you can easily edit what will show up on your popup, when the popup will occur (first time visit, after certain number of visits), on which page, etc.  You can control how the popup appears (fade in, etc.) and where it appears on the screen (top left, center, etc.).

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-popup-scheduler/

So, that is a quick listing of what TM Design considers essential wordpress plugins.  We would love to hear your comments or questions!  All of the above plugins can be seen in action on the TM Design site.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment!

- TM Design “Professional, Affordable, Reliable”

Welcome to TM Designs’ newest look!  We decided to keep the site as simple and clean as possible in this latest version!  We hope you enjoy taking a look through the site.  We have now added a blog page as well where we hope to post updates about the company, tips for eBusiness owners/designers/developers, and overall helpful information!

We look forward to talking to each and every one of our visitors, so make sure to comment as much as you like!  We also would appreciate hearing from you through our contact form or via direct email (info@designtm.ca).

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment!

- TM Design “Professional, Affordable, Reliable”