Webmaster Blog

There are many components to writing a story—plot, conflict, climax, characters, setting, resolution, theme—and the list can go on. Some say there are only five parts that need to be put together for a story, but there are many elements that a writer needs to look at. One of them is my hardest element to implement: Dialogue. Dialogue is something that I have always struggled with for three specific reasons. One, the tone. I mostly write sci-fi and fantasy stories/novels, so to bring a new way of speaking into the mix, it is hard to get into the habit of not adding the normal slang or informal speech into your writing that you use every day in conversation. Example: In my 2013 NaNoWriMo novel, I have stopped myself from writing partial or complete phrases like “this kind of stuff”, but others have made their way in like “give it a try”. It’s hard to write dialogue to sound as if someone else is talking one way when you yourself speak another. This is obviously a piece about writing that I am still learning about, and it should get easier, but it can definitely cause a rift in the flow of...

Bringing a subdomain together with a domain can be easy and it can be difficult. Being in Long Island means there are plenty of businesses that are working to bring their websites to the top of their search pages, and they may be looking for a way to do so in a natural an organic way. This can often be done when websites are built to bring the image of a company together and a big way of doing this is with a Blog. Companies an easily connect blogs to their websites by a few different ways. I know plenty of businesses are trying to think of the best ways to add a blog and there are a few different ways. The three ways a Long Island business can do that is by adding a subdomain, a subfolder or even a separate domain entirely. There are a few drawbacks and a bunch of positive pieces too. A good thing about a subdomain is being able to backlink to your site. This is something that a lot of companies want to do. Backlinking is a good idea to bring more business to your site. This is true for using other websites...

There are so many tips that are important to keep in mind when writing for a blog. There are times when these tips can come in handy, especially when you are looking to have a powerful and meaningful and popular blog. I won’t say that just anyone can write, but it’s not impossible for anyone to open their laptops or get their pen and paper out and write something meaningful. Many people can write. Does that mean anyone can just have a blog and keep readers interested? I won’t say no, but I will say more likely than not it won’t happen that way. Finding an important topic to share with your readers is one thing, but to make sure you continue to add relevant information is another. Once you have the right content, here are some tips to keep in mind as you write. Make Your Writing Scannable Most of the time people don’t enjoy reading blocks of text, so it helps when the text is easy to read or easy to scan. Some readers look through a lot of different content, and there isn’t always time to read every article or post they are interested in. For this...

It’s interesting what we use as the pieces to organize our lives. We use so many different organizers that it’s often to the point that we need to organize our organizers. One thing I do enjoy about organizing, besides doing the actual organizing, is having different modes of organizing for every aspect of our busy lives. Women have their whole lives inside of purses while men carry their pieces of their lives in their wallets. We have spacers for trunks and hanging organizers for our closets. We have boxes for our pencils and containers for our food. Drawers for our clothes and bags for our…well, anything else really. I think the one thing that some forget about as a way to organize is a notebook. A notebook offers us many ways, customized ways and creative ways to keep our writings together. It starts out when we are in grade school. We have homework, dittos, charts, drawing. We have a notebook to hold it in. Sure they are probably more like folders, but as we get older, they switch to folders with different sections for writing. Then when you get even older, you can combine notebooks, folders and whatever else to...

When you write a novel, there are a lot of ways you need to move. Such as forward. To be honest, forward should actually be the only way you travel, as a matter of fact. Many try to write a novel and then edit as they go. I may not be a novelist to the point of writing dozens and dozens of novels, but there is something that I have learned: move forward. Reasons for Forward For more than 10 years I had about a chapter for a story of mine. A five book series actually. I am not one to have a lot of time to finish creative projects with life going on, so I would do what I could when the urge came to me. Every time I would start working on it again, especially with months in between, I would re-read what I had already written, and, having changed in style, I would edit the same pages again and again. And did I ever get to the writing more part? No. I would usually end up using my time and spare energy on those dozen pages and then stop again. Repeat. This is no way to write...

GoDaddy is a big hosting company that offers plenty of different options to its customers. From new domains and hosting options, customers can also build their website with eCommerce options, email options and so much more. GoDaddy is the biggest company that I have heard of that offers these kinds of services, so that is where I went when I started my own website. GoDaddy has given me everything I have needed and has helped me with a few accidental mistakes that I have made. So, needless to say, GoDaddy is the site that I stay with for as long as it serves me the best. One thing that I have learned about GoDaddy is the fact that the email takes forever…well, a very long long time...to load. I learned this with my business three years when we signed up with GoDaddy. The way we moved around this slow moving was to sign up through GoogleApps and connect the two. Problem is, this is no longer free. Which means, I either pay a lot of money to use the GoogleApp for anything in the future or I am stuck only using the GoDaddy email interface. What is the solution? Gmail actually...

This interview was with Nicole Russell, a Project Director at a local Long Island production company. Tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Nicole Russell, and I have been a part of this company for three years. I have lived in Long Island my whole life, and enjoy everything about the production industry. What exactly does your career entail? I work with our individual clients that come into our studio. I speak with them about what they are looking for and how they are looking to complete their project. Once the project gets underway, I am the contact for every client every step until its completion. How did you start? I started out as a writer at a marketing company. After a few years, I brought my skills to work with a friend and offered my same skills to the company as a freelancer. To learn more about the production industry, I joined the meetings and met with clients. I joined the crew on shoots, and eventually it became my job to handle and communicate with our clients. I was thrilled to become a part of the business instead of only a freelancer. I have been with the company...

Creating a manuscript may be one of the hardest things for writers to do. Some writers may not actually ever finish and create a manuscript. It is also possible that a writer can spend years and years on a manuscript and never finish it. That being said, how do you write your manuscript? I am a writer and have my own way of doing it, as do most writers. Even if you ask a writer, what are you writing about…and you get the traditional blank stare, that is normal. BUT, if you ask, how do you write your stories, there are plenty of options and explanations of why. So, of the two most simple—handwriting and typing—which one is better? Handwriting Writers have been handwriting their manuscripts for centuries, but since the invention of the typewriter, typing made a world of difference. But the feeling about handwriting still holds true to many writers: a personal experience of creating your story. There is something about writing each individual word out by hand the way it has been done for centuries that really creates a connection with the writer’s work. I know writers that feel more connected to their writing while they write it...

There are reviews upon reviews that talk about the "Do"s and "Don't"s when starting a website. Wordpress is one of those platforms that has about a million different posts across the Internet that will offer tips and tricks and plenty of reviews about everything. Tips about what plugins to use. Tricks about setting up the plugins. So on and so on. I have built about five different websites, all with the use of Wordpress, and I learn something new every time I build a new one. I will say; however, there are a few things that stay the same every time, and I simply build on them. First, where I get my themes from is a constant. I choose Elegant Themes. This website offers me plenty of options and even the Photoshop files too. A lot of web designers have their own locations they go to find their themes (especially with Wordpress themes), but this is different from person to person, so on to the next and main piece to the puzzle that I don't change: plugins. There are a handful of plugins that I download on to every Wordpress site that I create. I think they are little plugins that...

Writing an eBook is much like writing a book in general. The steps are pretty much the same. The difference may be the visuals as some eBooks may have more than regular printed books, depending on the type of books of course. The following are eight steps that will give you an idea of what is involved from start to publishing. Choose a Topic As I’ve talked about before, it’s better to choose a topic that you know: one that you can put your own thoughts and ideas into. Also choosing a topic may be harder to do than most think. (Read my “Where to Find Inspiration for Blog Posts Topics” for more help.) Research This is the same as finding a good location for a business. So, instead of “location, location, location” it’s “research, research, research”. Make sure your topic is thoroughly researched, and you have as many points from beginning to end that you want to share as you can. Organize Your Details Make sure you get everything together with everything you need. Outline and figure out the order in which you want to write your eBook. You need a plan before you start writing. If you don’t...

This should seemingly be an easy question to answer, but in reality it is not as easy as it seems. As any writer, blogger or journalist knows, finding a topic may be the hardest part of writing—next to actually writing it, of course. No, I’m not saying that writing is the hardest part, but for some it may be. Often it may be easier for some to write than to find a topic and vice versa, but everything always depends on everything, including the writer him- or herself. Some may not even think that finding a topic may be a difficult task, but just think back to high school when you had to write a paper. Even with the choices are narrowed down for you, was it easy to choose? Probably not. So, now that we’re older, does that mean it gets any easier? Maybe not. What to Write Well first, it is always easier to write about what you know. The information flows more naturally from your head onto paper (or type). This doesn’t mean you have to be an expert and know everything but having experience with it may help you learn more information and put it together....

With the technology available to us in the 21st Century it is quite common for people to fulfill their desire to record their thoughts, feelings, and opinions through an online web log better known as a Blog. It is the quickest way to exorcize emotional demons, promote yourself or your company, receive positive and negative feedback, and maybe even get paid depending on the type of blog you are writing. The most attractive feature of blogging is that it is incredibly easy to do. How to start The best way to start your blog is to pick a topic and write about it. It is a simple as that. Some blogs are educational while others are border line soap operas. Over all it depends on what you are going for; the possibilities are limitless. A common issue is finding a topic to write about. When I hit this road block, I ask a question. The best way to find your blogging voice is to treat each blog as a conversation. What better way to begin a conversation then to ask a question? Fact or Fiction… When you have found your topic, of course perform the necessary research to back your...

The longer that we, as users, continue to use the Internet, the more the Internet will be our main place of business. Some may still work with their shoppers, clients and visitors face to face and over the phone, but many companies enable online tactics every single day. There are shared emails, newsletters, images, contacts…so much connectivity from every angle. But what is an email but a faceless person talking to you? It’s interesting how you don’t think about how dealing with someone online can bring a different way of communicating, but email really is a faceless. What if you dealt with a company all the time online and never once saw their faces? Think Amazon.com. Who, if anyone, EVER have you seen? No one, right? Me neither. For companies similar to Amazon, and I say similar because Amazon is a huge company, and I want us to think smaller. How would a smaller company change this “faceless problem”? Video Video for the company. Video of the location. Video of the employees. Video of the CEO. Video of anything to show the company, what it can offer and where it’s going. Online marketing combined with video can really boost the...

Social media. It's the talk of websites, newspapers, articles. Everywhere you look you will see, read, learn something about social media. Most say what a great idea it is for businesses to be able to communicate with the consumers directly. Share stories and open the page for discussions. How can that be a bad thing? It's not. But there is one problem with social media: the numbers don't track well. There are plenty of times the number of visitors and pageviews will spike as the social media side of the world, which is often followed by higher bounce rates, lower pageviews per visitor and even a lower average time on the site. With numbers jumping up and down, bouncing from page to page, it often makes the positive articles about social media be brought into question. It may be true that social media visitors visit and leave quickly, but there are plenty of reasons why social media should still be implemented into the marketing strategy and plan of any business. The Best Parts Free: Social media is completely free. Signing up for those websites you will use to communicate with your consumers, such as Facebook and Twitter, don't charge a setup...

You think you can write a blog? Well, I’m sure you can, but can you write a blog that makes people want to come back over and again? And there lies one of the big questions. True, it may be easier for some to come up with content while others can write better than they can come up with ideas. It all depends on the writer and, well, the content. The same goes for your fans, your readers and your return visitors. It is possible that you may grab someone’s attention with one of your posts, but then lose them the next time you write something. So, what are some good pieces of advice to keep in mind as you continue to grow your blog? One: Pick a Niche This is important. If you go to a website about moms do you expect to see can post about a Mercedes? Probably not, unless the post teaches moms about why that particular Mercedes is useful for moms. But can you still see that being a slight stretch? Slightly, yes. Now, if the website has nothing but posts about diapers, children, pedicures, safety and a whole slew of other topics as related to...

Technology had touched the life of practically every person on the planet. Practically. I can’t say 100 percent, because I have no proof; BUT I do know that someone doesn’t need to have technology to have been touched by it. Technology may simply be the catalyst or creator or engineer of whatever it is that touches a person. For example, a medicinal vaccine may make it to a third world county, to a village that had never seen anything electrical, but still the technology of other countries were used to create that vaccine and therefore their lives have been touched by technology. Now, with all that being said, the next step in technology is to be able to integrate it together. This already happens with many MANY a device. Let’s take Apple for example as I feel their company does a fantastic job of integrating all of their tools. From the iPod, iMac, Macbook Pro, Mac Pro to the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iCloud, these devices can be connected seamlessly. For example, you can connect your iPhone with your iPad so whenever you download an application on one, it will automatically download to the other (as long as the app...

So you have a blog. A great blog. A creative blog. Problem is even with an awesome blog, you may want to get more of your posts out there and not get the traffic you should. You may want to share more and reach a wider audience. So, how do you go about doing that? There are many ways, and some may work better than others. If one blog takes off one way, it’s very possible that it won’t work for the next blog. It’s very trial and error. It’s important to try what avenues may work the best for your site, your traffic and your content. I have tried so far simple ways to increase viewing on my site as most sites do, and even though these options often bring more traffic, the increase that I am looking for does not happen as I want. I will say that one thing that keeps traffic moving is constant posts. Add one post a day and the traffic will stay at a stable level. I think the main issue with this is, as usual, the time constraints. There never seems to be enough time to enjoy and add and create as much...

Being an owner and webmaster of a few different websites, I have come across many a new dilemma, problem and, with the help of others who are looking to do the same thing, I find solutions. With the many other webmasters out in cyberspace, there may be times when you want to create a page on your static Wordpress site, but it is very possible that you don’t want the theme you already have set for every single page. You may be looking for a “blank page” or a “blank slate”, if you will, that does not include a header or sidebars or anything else. The day came that I needed I wanted a blank slate…a blank page…and to Google I turned. I typed into the search bar “plugin to make a wordpress page blank” as I thought with the so many different plugins, there would be a way to find a plugin that would do what I wanted. After doing some searching through mages, this is the page that I found that was the most helpful in my “blank slate” journey. So did it work? Yes. Did it take some time? Yes. But in the end, I got it to...

Wordpress is a well-oiled machine! That is honestly the best way to put it. Not only have different developers worked to grow their applications and plugins and widgets, but they have grown with the program. As the program changes, so does the software. How often does Wordpress update? I would guess at least every couple of months. Then what is the first thing that happens? Developers need to check their plugins and make sure they are compatible with the newest update, and should the need arise, make updates. I, for one, get worried when that happens as I have to wait for the updates and for the information that they are compatible or not. If I don’t see a “100% compatible” at the bottom of the plugin list when it’s ready for an update, I won’t even consider updating it. Plugins are what make Wordpress into the amazing machine that it is. At least in terms of what webmasters can use them for. Websites can be built from scratch, one page at a time, with lline by line of code with every single aspect of the website being added to said code OR those who want something templated, well-built and ready...

Graphic Design is one of those adventures of creativity that can be just as any other creative project—difficult. It can also be super easy. It really depends on the prep-work, process, and project. There are certain pieces of the process that aspiring, novice, beginner, and other-leveled graphic artists should keep in mind while working. Of course it depends on what you are creating, but having a few pieces of advice may help throughout your logo creation. Logos Logos are incredibly important for companies. They brand your name and can often solidify your brand image. Each little detail of the logo is very important. From the colors to the shapes to even the messages they convey, it is important to pay attention to every detail. Take a look at our logo design shop. Colors Colors have different meanings depending on the country. For example, we think of red as a powerful color while blue is confident with integrity. Don’t think so? Look at the color of ties worn by every presidential candidate in the past 16 years. Blue and Red. Shapes Shapes offer us a similar important role. Some shapes are very distinctive, and you can name what company it goes to...