5 Things to Know BEFORE You Pay for a WordPress Website

Picture being at a grocery store. There are five boxes of the exact same cereal in a row. One is $3, two are $5 and two are $4. Which one will you pick? The $3 one of course! Picture the same scenario except the boxes are at different stores. Which one will you pick? It will be the one from whichever store you are at.

If you Google “Website Design” you will find thousands upon thousands of search results. If you are looking to have a website built it can be hectic finding the right designer. My fear for clients is that they don’t always know what to look for. You could end up paying hundreds of dollars and never know if you were overcharged, if the coding is accurate or how well your website works with search engines. Not only that, but if people only knew the possibilities of what they could have at such a low price they would be very surprised.

First let me give you a preface..

WordPress.org launched WordPress in 2003. I only found out about WordPress in 2009 but since I have tried it out, I haven’t designed a website in plain HTML ever since. The small exception to this is that I did put my personal website in plain HTML for a few months because I wasn’t blogging, or updating often. To help you understand WordPress, let me answer a few questions:

What is WordPress?
WordPress is a Content Management System. It is often used as a blogging platform.

How would WordPress benefit me?
You would be able to maintain your website on your own without having to know HTML. Here are just a few of the editing options you have; add/remove/update pages, links, content, pictures, audio & video. All of these changes are done without the worry of accidentally coming in contact with the design. That is honestly just the beginning. There are so many other great things. Check out the list of features to read them all.

With that in mind I want to tell you five things you should know before you pay for a WordPress website.

1. WordPress can be downloaded for FREE by anyone. The only thing you should be paying for if you request a WordPress website is the design, installation or overall set up (pages, links and etc).
**Hint: Pages take about 30 seconds to set up. It is literally done by a few clicks and typing in a title and than text. You could do this on your own unless you prefer not to or if you want something more advanced than text and a few photos.
2. WordPress has a Five Minute Installation Guide. After the installation it takes about 45minutes give or take for WordPress to upload. It takes only minutes to install pre-made themes or “designs”. Keep this in mind when you are paying for installation.
**Hint: There are guides on how to install WordPress yourself. If you are up for the challenge, check out WP Beginner’s guide. Also, several website hosts install WordPress for free when you sign up for hosting.
4. There are hundreds of FREE themes or “designs” that look amazing and have much functionality. Many of them you probably couldn’t even afford to pay a designer to create and they are available at no charge. Check out some free WordPress themes.
**Hint: To find some really great themes, google things like “Top 20 free WordPress themes of 2009″ or “Best business WordPress themes of 2009″
5. You can start up a WordPress website for free – no cost for hosting, no cost for installation, no cost for anything.. free. There are of course some down sides to this option. There are limitations on what a person can do with their website and also you would have a generic web address (www.yoursitename.wordpress.com).

I hope you found this post helpful. My aim in writing this was to at least let people know what their options are so that you can make an informed decision. You know the saying “You get what you pay for..” well, that doesn’t apply with WordPress websites. You can get amazing websites for so much less than you maybe ever thought possible.

Image used with permission. Thank you.

Add a Custom Font With @font-face

Step One: Download a Font
Head over to Font Squirrel and check our their great selection of fonts that are 100% free for commercial use. I am using the font “Windsong” for this tutorial.

Step Two: Upload the Font to Your Server
After your font has been unzipped, upload it to your server. I recommend creating a separate file for fonts. (wp-content/themes/thematicchildtheme/fonts)

Step Three: Edit Your CSS File
Open style.css and add the following snippet of code:

@font-face {
font-family: Windsong;
src: url('fonts/Windsong.ttf');
}

Step Four: Apply Your New Font
Apply your font by changing the font-family to your desired font. I will be using this font on my blog title. Example:

#blog-title a {
font-family: Windsong;
}

Watch me do it:

Designed by Marsha is on YouTube!

Sometimes tutorials are tricky to understand. If you learn like me, it helps to actually see a demonstration. This is what my channel is for; taking my written tutorials and then demonstrating them for you. I look forward to the interaction on YouTube and the making of more videos. If you would like me to demonstrate something, please go ahead and ask. I love hearing from my visitors!

Check out my YouTube Channel.

Copyright Free Music for Your YouTube Videos

Adding music to your YouTube videos can be a headache if you do not know about copyrights. There isn’t much room for mistakes, YouTube has some pretty serious consequences for anyone who uploads copyrighted material. Your video(s) could be taken down and you may loose your account. After your account is gone that is it – YouTube does not allowed anyone with a terminated account to re-create another one.

Because of this many people fear using music at all, however, I want to encourage you that there is music available at no cost and without copyrights.

ccMixter is a well organized website full of copyright free music. YouTube is even mentioned specifically!

Before you dive in and start downloading your music of choice there are just a few things to note. Make sure when you search that you use the appropriate license. Is this for personal use or commercial use? Next, is it for a video, a game, or a podcast or etc? These things you can chose from the drop down menu. It is very important to narrow your search down. It would be a shame to find something you like and not be able to use it.

When you have narrowed down your search, make sure to click on the grey license buttons. They will tell you what you can and cannot do with the selected file.

And finally, two pieces of wisdom in closing:
1. Do not use ignorance as an excuse. If you do not know if something is copyright, it is best not to use it, just in case.
2. Give the authors credit. Remember that behind every username there is a real person. These authors have done a great service in offering their works for free. Giving them the credit they ask for is the least we can do.

If you would like more information on YouTube’s copyright policy, check our their Copyright Tips.

Thematic: Remove the Sidebar

To remove the sidebar of your Thematic child theme start by opening up your functions.php file. I have said this in every post about Thematic up to this point, and I will say it again just in case this is the first post you read. Editing the core files of Thematic (index.php, header.php, footer.php and etc) are a big no-no. There are a better way of doing things. If you are anything like me, you don’t really like reading tutorials – you are more hands on. Trust me, reading this will make your design process so much easier. Check out Ian’s post on How to Modify WordPress Themes the Smart Way.

Once your functions.php file is opened, add the following code somewhere between <?php and ?>.

// Remove Sidebar
function remove_sidebar() {
remove_action('thematic_sidebar','remove_sidebar');
}
add_filter('thematic_sidebar', 'remove_sidebar');

With that, your sidebar will have disappeared. The next thing you will need to do is to expand your content area to get rid of the extra white space. This will vary depending on which child theme you are using, I am using the power blog child theme. The file that I will open up is 3c-r-fixed-primary-988px.css. I want to draw your attention to two portions of the css:

#content {
margin-right:448px;
overflow:hidden;
}

and

#sidebar {
float:right;
margin:0 0 0 -428px;
overflow:hidden;
width:428px;
}

From #content, remove ‘margin-right:448px;’. Also remove the entire #sidebar code. Once your changes are complete, save your css file and you are finished.

Watch me do it: