Make a Resolution to Maintain a Secure Website in 2012!

Posted on January 11, 2012 by April Heline

WDS WordPress SupportWelcome to 2012! As a new year begins many people make resolutions to start the year off right. At WebDevStudios, we think that great new year’s resolution should also apply to your websites! Many people use WordPress to power their business websites and blogs, but they are not securing their websites from potential security breaches and hackers.  All it takes is a little malicious code in order to completely turn off your readers or shut down your site completely. In order to encourage everyone to keep their sites up and running and secure, we are offering a special for the month of January.

For this month only we are offering a $25 off each support hours purchased this year when you sign up for one of our annual maintenance packages!* Our maintenance packages give you the peace of mind that you always have a recent backup of your website and it is running on the most recent and secure version of WordPress.

By signing up for one of our maintenance packages you have the opportunity to purchase some support hours at a discounted price and get those little miscellaneous tasks you’ve been thinking about completed!  Support hours can be used to update your website with design changes, additional features, speed improvements and more!**

Read more about our Maintenance Packages, Support Blocks or Contact Us now for more details on signing up!

* Maintenance package purchase must be completed by January 31, 2012. All packages are sold on an annual basis.

** Valid on any support hours purchase before December 31, 2012. Support hours are sold in blocks of 5 hours.

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Merry Christmas 2011 from WebDevStudios!

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Brad Williams

Merry Christmas from the team at WebDevStudios.com!

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Three New WordPress Websites Featuring Genesis!

Posted on December 15, 2011 by April Heline

Like many of the WordPress shops out there, WebDevStudios has been very busy! We recently had a number of projects wrap up around the same time and as it worked out all our clients’ schedules aligned to create one huge launch day. Last week we launched 3 new sites all using the Genesis Theme Framework and we think they all came out great!

Tips on Trips and Camps

For years the people at Tips on Trips and Camps have had a website that required them to contact a developer every time they wanted to make an update to their site. They had grown tired of not being able to make changes on their own and they also felt that the site had become cluttered and difficult to navigate.  We worked with them to create a great new layout and reorganize their content in a user-friendly way. We also imported their existing Blogger blog to allow them to manage everything under one install of WordPress.

Read more about the new Tips on Trips and Camps website here.

Pigtronix

Pigtronix.com moved from a custom-built site that was designed by owner, David Koltai years ago. Dave and his partner Brian felt they needed a new image for their growing guitar pedal business. We worked with Pigtronix to create a new site that highlighted their pedals, the artists who use these pedals and the dealers around the world that sell their products.  We also built a great media section where the visitor can watch videos and listen to sound clips of the pedals in action.

Read more about the new Pigtronix website here.

A Garden for the House

Agardenforthehouse.com is the home to tips, tricks, advice and recipes from Kevin Lee Jacobs.  Kevin writes from his home in upstate New York that features formal rose gardens outdoors and lavish window gardens indoors. He also provides his readers with a number of mouth-watering recipes that feature many of his home-grown goodies.

We moved A Garden for the House off of the Blogger platform and gave it a completely new design. We worked with Kevin to create a new layout that focuses on his most popular categories and make the site easier to navigate when you are looking for information on a specific topic.

Read more about the new A Garden for the House website here.

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WDS is Attending WordCamp Las Vegas 2011!

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Brad Williams

WebDevStudios is heading west to attend WordCamp Las Vegas on December 17th, 2011! The WDS founders, Brad and Brian, will be attending what looks to be an awesome WordCamp. We’re also very proud to be a Diamond Sponsor of the event.

If you are attending the event make sure you track Brad and Brian down. They are always looking to talk WordPress and might even have a few goodies to give away!

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Successful WordCamp Philly 2011!

Posted on November 7, 2011 by April Heline

It’s no secret that WebDevStudios loves WordCamps! We have sponsored and attended a number of WordCamps all over the country. We love how WordCamp provides the WordPress community with expert presentations, tons of networking opportunities, hands on training sessions and much more! Events like these only make WordPress and it’s users stronger and better educated.

After attending so many WordCamps we decided to take what we have learned any apply it to planning a WordCamp here in Philadelphia. Together with Doug Stewart, Reed Gustow and Anthony Bubel, we put together a massive WordPress-packed weekend! Saturday’s conference at the Fox School of Business and Management @ Temple University included four expert-packed tracks, a lunchtime academic panel and a hands-on classroom for WordPress training and demos.

Sunday consisted of a 4-hour developer day at Philadelphia Center for Architecture where everyone got together for hands on training on contributing to WordPress core, releasing a plugin and releasing a theme.

We also had a great after-party Saturday night at National Mechanics where everyone got to enjoy some great food, drinks and WordPress chat at a popular local tech meetup restaurant. We even set up a turntable.fm room where anyone could be the DJ for the night!

As always, WordCamp would have never been successful without the wonderful organizers, amazing volunteers and all the help we received from a number of people in the Philadelphia area. We can’t thank everyone enough for helping to hold such a successful WordCamp and (after a short break) are already looking forward to making next year even better!

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This Weekend: WordCamp Boston 2011!

Posted on July 21, 2011 by April Heline

WordCamp Boston 2011 will be held July 23rd and 24th at the George Sherman Union at Boston University located at at 775 Commonwealth Avenue. This is the second annual WordCamp in Boston and after attending last years event we are sure this is a WordCamp that you should not miss!

Brad and Chris will be attending WordCamp Boston this year and are looking forward to talking shop with other WordPress enthusiasts and all the great presentations Boston has to offer this year.

For additional information visit the website, download the WordCamp Boston mobile app, follow them on Twitter.

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Win a Ticket to WordCamp San Diego!

Posted on June 17, 2011 by April Heline

WebDevStudios is proud to announce that we are sponsoring WordCamp San Diego which is taking place on July 16th, 2011 at San Diego State University.  The event will feature two separate tracks with speakers covering a variety of topics from using WordPress for web development to creating a successful blog.

If you haven’t gotten your ticket to the event they are already SOLD OUT.  However, WebDevStudios will not be able to make it to the west coast to attend WordCamp San Diego this year so we are giving everyone a chance to WIN our tickets!  For a chance to win one of our tickets to WordCamp San Diego all you have to do is visit our Facebook page, Like us and leave a post telling us why you want to attend WordCamp San Diego.  Two people will be chosen on Friday, June 24th and given our tickets to the event!

There are many people looking for tickets to WordCamp San Diego so we ask that you please enter the drawing only if you are planning on attending this year.

For more information about WordCamp San Diego visit the website, follow them on Twitter, or find them on Facebook.

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Billions – A Free WordPress Theme by WebDevStudios

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Chris Cochran

Last week WebDevStudios pushed their first theme to the WordPress theme repository called “Billions.”

Billions was created collaboratively with TurboTax who contacted us looking to create a free theme focused on financial bloggers and would be available for download in the WordPress.org theme repository.

Some key features we included are advanced SEO options, sharing options, flexibility, and of course a great design. Working closely with the team at Intuit’s TurboTax, we crafted the theme to their specifications as well WordPress standards including:

  • Advance SEO Options

    Get the edge in search ranking over your competitors with advanced search engine optimization features control out of the box. Easily set custom title, meta description and keyword tags on posts, pages, categories, and your home page. You can also include additional custom meta tags as needed.

  • Integrated Breadcrumb Trails

    Billions integrates the popular breadcrumb plugin by Yoast to give easy breadcrumb control and page trails for your content.

  • Facebook, Twitter and RSS link options.

    Social Link box

    Get social and add your links to your social network profiles.

    Let your readers know where to find you on Twitter or Facebook by adding your facebook profile link and twitter user name in the theme options.


  • In Post Sharing links
    Social Share Box

    The sharebox allows readers to easily share your article.

    Get your content out onto the web in more places by letting your reader share it. The post share box has easy share links for twitter, digg, stumbleupon, facebook, reddit and google buzz to let anyone share your post on their favorite networks.

  • Custom Header Support

    With the release of WordPress 3.0 came custom header support for themes. Feel free to swap out the pre-uploaded header with an image of your own.

  • Custom Background Support

    WordPress 3.0 also introduced support for custom background. Supported in the billions theme this allows the user to upload a custom image or a color to be used as their sites background.

  • YARPP support

    Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site. Simply download the plugin and start seeing related content below each post! Select our custom thumbnail template for an added bonus.

  • SiteMap

    Create a page and chose the sitemap template to give your readers and search engines a quick access page to all your content.

Billions Options

Take advantage of the built in options to make the billions yours.

Additional Features:

  • Simple Image Gallery Display
  • Author Archives
  • 7 Registered Widget Areas (including a widgetized footer).
  • 3 Menu Locations
  • Custom Hompage
  • Threaded Comments
  • Featured Image Support
  • Blog Template
  • Custom Tag and Category Archives

    •  

    Building a theme for the WordPress Theme Repository was a great learning experience and I recommend it for any theme developer.  Make sure to check back for “Making a WordPress Theme for the WordPress.org Theme Directory” which will go in depth on exactly what is needed to get your theme into the Free Theme Directory, as well as some tips learned through the process of submitting Billions.

    Billions is a new WordPress theme featuring advanced SEO options, integrated breadcrumb trails, and easy sharing links to help promote your content as well as much more. Download it now for FREE from the WordPress Theme Repository.

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    Busy Tech Week for WebDevStudios!

    Posted on May 18, 2011 by April Heline

    The upcoming week is going to be very busy for everyone at WebDevStudios!

    WordCamp Raleigh

    Friday we are renting a van and driving almost the entire company down to WordCamp Raleigh.  This year Brad will be speaking on “Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Using Custom Post Types and Taxonomies.”  As always there will be a number of zombie references mixed in with a number of great WordPress tips and tricks.  Anyone who has ever attended one of Brad’s lectures knows they are not to be missed!

    There will also be a number of great speakers at WordCamp Raleigh including our very talented friends Ryan Duff, Syed Balkhi, Jayvie Canono, Patrick O’Keefe and many many more.

    This year WordCamp Raleigh is a two-day event being held on May 21st and 22nd.  The conference will once again be held at the beautiful Sheraton Raleigh Hotel.

    If you would like to attend WordCamp tickets are still available here!

    Stay up-to-date with the going ons at WordCamp Raleigh via the website, Twitter and Facebook.

    BlogWorld & New Media Expo

    Right after WordCamp Raleigh, we are taking a quick one day breather and then heading up to New York City for BlogWorld & New Media Expo!

    This year the people at BlogWorld have decided to split their awesome conference into two with an East Coast conference in New York City and a West Coast conference in Los Angeles.  Next week we will be attending the first conference at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City and we even have a booth in the expo hall!  If you are attending BlogWorld Expo be sure to visit Booth #502 for chances to win great prizes, find out some information on our services or just talk WordPress shop.

    Tickets for the conference and virtual tickets are still available here.  Information about BlogWorld Expo is also available on the website and on Twitter.

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    Operation Homefront’s New BuddyPress Site Connects Military Families

    Posted on May 13, 2011 by April Heline

    Operation Homefront is an amazing organization that provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.  Through generous, widespread public support and a collaborative team of exceptional staff and volunteers, they aspire to become the provider of choice for emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.

    We met Operation Homefront at BlogWorld Expo 2010 and hit it off right away.  They were looking for developers to migrate their existing forum into a new friendly easy to use system and to help them create a special community site dedicated to military families that would put people in touch with people that were having the same experiences and hardships.  After hearing about the kind of community they were looking for, we knew that BuddyPress would be perfect!

    The new community BuddyPress site allows military families to connect with people who have shared interests, common concerns or are just someone to interact with. You can join a group or create your own. You can blog about or link to things that interest you. You can share photos or view the album of a friend.  It is a great site to meet people who have family in the military and share your story.

    Operation Homefront now has a wonderful BuddyPress community site that is the fun and uplifting place that the organization envisioned and where members can share the ups and downs of life as a military family member.  Be sure to visit the new Operation Homefront Community! and visit our Operation Homefront work portfolio for more details.

    Posted in bbPress, BuddyPress, Client Websites | Tagged , | 1 Comment