Last week Will Sansbury mentioned to me that one of his ideas with the Atlanta chapter site was to provide an example or template of how WordPress could be used for chapter sites. I got to thinking, why isn’t there a standard WordPress template for chapters and SIGs to use?

Further, in WordPress 3.0, WordPress MU and regular WordPress will be merged. This is huge, because it means you’ll be able to create child blogs with a regular WordPress install. Essentially we could have one site like stcchapter.org with dozens of child blogs, containing subdomains such as intermountain.stcchapter.org, wyoming.stcchapter.org, and so forth. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently Will Sansbury and I gave a webinar to STC community leaders on chapter and SIG websites. Rather than giving a static, one-way presentation about theoretical concepts with web design, or boring people with technical details they probably didn’t care about, we held the webinar more like a design review workshop, not too different from a writing group workshop.

Although I spent three years in a creative writing program holding exactly these types of writing workshops, in which a group of people provide feedback on the story or essay someone submits, it never crossed my mind that designers probably sit around tables doing the exact same thing with websites. Read the rest of this entry »

Date: Jan 28, 2010
Time: 1 pm EST
Platform: Genysys (on the web)
Cost: Free for STC members
Registration required

Will Sansbury and I are giving a webinar on web design and WordPress this Thursday as part of the STC Community Leaders series. In the webinar, we plan to look at about five chapter/SIG sites in depth, examining what they’re doing well and how they could be improved. The sites will merely provide examples to spark discussion about web concepts and techniques (helping us move in a descriptive rather than prescriptive direction). Read the rest of this entry »

Google Custom Search can dramatically improve the search results for your WordPress blog or any other site. WordPress is a great blogging platform, no doubt about it. But the built-in search feature is terrible. As I’ve searched for keywords from past posts to respond to reader questions, I would continually come up empty-handed.

As a solution, I incorporated Google Custom Search, which is a free service that allows you to embed a Google search box and results (limited to just your site and any other sites you specify) on your site.

Try it out by searching for something using the search at the top of my sidebar. Not only are the search results more accurate, when you start running a few searches, you begin to see how your site appears to people who search for you in Google. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m giving a webinar for STC community leaders on January 28 titled “Site Critiques and WordPress Q&A.”

Here’s the description:

Because most communities have far more virtual participants than physical participants, establishing a strong web presence where members can find information, interact with each other, and access resources is critical. In this community webinar, we’ll review a handful of chapter or SIG sites and discuss what’s working well and how they might be improved. If you want to have your site reviewed, send me the URL before the webinar.

We’ll also talk about WordPress — a popular platform many chapters are using for their websites. As a WordPress consultant, I deal with all kinds of WordPress questions, from customizing themes to implementing specific plugins, tweaking the stylesheet, inserting PHP tags, and fixing crashed sites. If you’re currently managing or implementing a WordPress site, bring your questions and I’ll try to answer them. I’ll also go over my top 10 recommended WordPress plugins.

Sign up for the webinar here.

The fourth sin in my ongoing Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging series (being fake, irrelevant, boring, unreadable, irresponsible, unfindable, and inattentive) is being unreadable. Readability is probably the easiest sin to correct, especially if you’re familiar with your stylesheet.

Reading Instincts

A while ago I moved The Content Wrangler to WordPress and used a Massive News theme as a starting point. I liked the way the Massive News theme looked, but something kept bugging me about it. The text seemed tiny, and the layout was busy. But Scott didn’t complain about this, so I ignored it. Read the rest of this entry »

Smashing Magazine recently posted 10 Useful Usability Guidelines and Findings. The 10 guidelines are as follows:

1. Form Labels Work Best Above The Field
2. Users Focus On Faces
3. Quality Of Design Is An Indicator Of Credibility
4. Most Users Do Not Scroll
5. Blue Is The Best Color For Links
6. The Ideal Search Box Is 27-Characters Wide
7. White Space Improves Comprehension
8. Effective User Testing Doesn’t Have To Be Extensive
9. Informative Product Pages Help You Stand Out
10. Most Users Are Blind To Advertising

Read the rest of this entry »

Rahel Bailie has started a new SIG focused on content strategy. SIGs are special interest groups sponsored by the STC, involving other STC members also interested in sharing about the same topic. Rahel writes,

We welcome the participation of any STC members who are engaged in content strategy, want to develop the skills to become a content strategist, or simply want to know more about content strategy.

Rahel is trying to bring content strategy more prominently into the discipline of technical communication. Expect a more visible content strategy presence at the next Summit. If you’re interested in the Content Strategy SIG, definitely get involved — they’re looking for more people to join the group. You can learn more about content strategy here.

I recently helped added some map functionality to a blog focused on Bellingham real estate to give users a better sense of the various neighborhood locations in their area. I used the Google XML maps plugin because it seemed to work best, and ever since then I’ve been playing with Google maps.

Mapping technology has come a long way in the last several years. You can now embed a rich Google map directly into your blog or site, draw boundaries on the map, add landmarkers, and so on — all without almost any technical knowledge. Here’s a map of the area I work in downtown Salt Lake City. Click on each of the squares to read a little blurb about that area.

Where I work

I don’t use maps much in my job as a technical writer, but maps are commonly used in just about everything else. Every time you have a meeting (for example, an STC meeting), you can embed a Google map on the website. If you have a garage sale, embed a map to your house. Planning a barbecue? Embed a map to the park or area you’re having it. I biked a long trail this weekend that I’m eager to add to Google maps. I also have a friend who geomaps trails all the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m trying something a little new on my blog. Previously, every time I read a cool post, I submitted the link to Writer River. The problem with that, however, is that posting to another site isn’t such a smart search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Using the Writer River method, people who follow trackbacks don’t follow them back to my site (idratherbewriting.com), but rather go to another site (writerriver.com).

Additionally, it’s more beneficial for me to link to others from my idratherbewriting.com site, because it has a higher authority than writerriver.com. Links from higher authority sites are more beneficial in transferring search engine visibility than links from lower authority sites. For example, a link from NYTimes.com will push you to the top of Google results while a link from Sam’s vacation blog probably won’t have much influence.

So here’s what I did to better search engine optimize my site. I created a new section on my site called What I’m Reading. The page shows all the posts I’m reading (which I want to share), with short commentaries or summaries about the content. This way I keep the keywords and links on my site. I’m hoping that this strategy will create more pull back to my own site and will increase the rank of those I link to, more so than links from Writer River. Read the rest of this entry »