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26
Jun
2018

Hosting Recommendations for 2018

After much research and having used several hosting companies the last 8 years, I have narrowed down my choices on the best shared hosting company for people who want to create their own blogs using the WordPress CMS.

Godaddy

Godaddy based out of Scottsdale, Arizona is both a domain registrar and a hosting company. I have bought many domains from Godaddy the last 10 years and bought their shared hosting for different clients. They are very dependable for customer service and support is a phone call away.

Siteground

Siteground is a hosting company based out of Bulgaria. I have met their reps at many WordCamp events. They response very quickly via chat, a phone call, or through a ticket. I have many clients that are very satisfied with their service. The have affordable shared hosting and also VPS hosting. For blogs, I would recommend buying the Grow Big Plan. Just click on the get started account

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question, Blog
11
Feb
2018
What hosting plan do I chose ?

What hosting plan do I chose ?

I recently met up with a bunch of hosting companies at the recent 2017 NYC WordCamp in San Diego. Only $ 5 per month with a 30 day guarantee or your money back. Now if you have a lot of WordPress sites to migrate I recommend the managed WordPress hosting  ( $8.00 per month ). The $ 8.00 per month offers free WordPress site migration ( other companies charge $ 50 for this service ). Go click on the banner below to sign up for this service.

I have been using several hosting accounts the last few years ( Hostmonster, Hostgator, & a Small Orange ). But the best one I like so far is Siteground. I use Hostmonster for a few years until I got getting serious downtown and getting hacked twice.I also used Hostgator and they have great customer service also. Except the only problem with Hostgator is it takes forever to get into Chat Mode with them. Sometimes the wait time is almost half an hour. I could have down two Frapuccinos by then.

A few months ago I was introduced to Siteground by a client. I have previously met them at several WordCamps. The response time on chat is fast. Less than 15 minutes and they’re up to date on reminding you on plugins updates. Continue reading →

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question
13
Mar
2016
Why does some email get into spam in my Gmail ?

Why does some email get into spam in my Gmail ?

Legitimate mail is marked as spam

If you find a message wrongly classified as spam, you can unmark the message. Just select the message, and click the Not Spam button that appears at the top and bottom of your current view. Unmarking a message will automatically move it to your inbox.

If you find that some senders’ messages are consistently being mislabeled as spam, you can prevent this by:

  • Adding their email addresses to your Contacts list. Gmail will deliver messages from members of your Contacts list to your inbox, unless we know with high confidence that they are spam.
  • Some messages sent from contacts which are very clearly spam can be sent directly to your Spam label. More importantly, in some cases messages from contacts will not be sent to Spam but will be marked with a red warning banner if the content is suspicious – for example, your friend’s or contact’s account has been compromised and used to send phishing messages.
  • Creating a filter so the messages are never sent to Spam.
  • Gmail Filter

If you’re sending to Gmail users and are seeing your messages marked as spam, please review our  Bulk Senders guide.

Vivian is a Gmail expert and the author of this help page. Leave her feedback about this help page.

 

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question
11
Oct
2015

Hank Pellissier Questions about WordPress template

My analysis of the American Enterprise Institute Homepage

American Enterprise Institute uses a customized template.
It has two two top menu locations.
The plugins they use are

duracelltomi-google-tag-manager

wordpress popular posts

The two tops rows of boxed pictures are called featured posts.
When you click read more on the text they link to a
STANDARD POST LAYOUT ( Content on left/ Sidebar on right )
Any WP content on the right sidebar are called WIDGETS

Below these image are the Blog posts. All WordPress posts are
organized by categories. Andrew Biggs posts

If women are underpaid by 23%, then federal employees are overpaid by 78%
are under the categories Economics, Labor Studies

 

Some questions my WordPress students ask me all the time .

Question : I want big wide photos that go across my homepage. I want to do the same with the sliders. How do I make it work. I always get tiny pics on my homepage. What am I doing wrong.

Answer For slide photos minimum pixel dimension width is 1200 pixels wide for photos. For featured image in posts, you can use 960 pixels wide. Most photos that you buy from a stock photo agency will be 1200 x 800 pixels or higher resolution ( which cost more ). To make the wide images work, you used a slider plugin like Revolution Slider. Usually when you buy a premium WordPress template, the slider plugin is included.

 

Adding featured image to posts in WordPress

featured image posts

Question :

How do I get to see those cool thumbnail photos that show up on posts. Where on the post layout do I install the pictures.

Answer  :

When you add a post, first marked its category location ( go to right side of your post window ).
Then below the tags, click on featured image. Then upload the photo from your computer and then click it
as featured image and you are done.

 

 

 

 

How to make comments show up on WordPress Posts

Screen Options in Posts

Question:  How do I set up my WordPress blog to show comments .

Answer: This is super easy. Usually when you add a new post be sure to go top of your screen and click screen options and click on discussion to allow people to post comments.

What you need to know about WordPress websites.

They have 3 components.

  • WordPress Core. Latest software is 4.3
  • WordPress Themes ( template )  Premium one are available on  themeforest.net
  • Plugins – Most paid templates have the most popular plugins like Contact Form, Sliders, Akismet, etc.

Some ideas where to get a good Magazine WordPress Theme. Go here

Now for some of my suggestions for a WordPress theme that will have news and education on Artificial Intelligence plus comments.  Here are some ideas.

Ruxen Responsive Magazine Theme

Hickory Magazine Theme

 

 

WordPress tips to enhance the look of your website:

Stock photos and graphics. We are a very visually stimulated society so exciting photos and illustrations
( graphics ) that will explain the ideas to people who are new to your topics. Usually stock photography, its a lot cheaper to buy a one month membership first, download all the pics that you need and stop your membership the second month.

Try adding keywords like aritficial intelligence, human brain and you get this results. Click here

Istock Photo

Big Stock Photos

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question
22
Aug
2015
Woo Commerce update question from Tasha

Woo Commerce update question from Tasha

Hope you’re doing well! I think I’m out of my time where I can ask questions but I’m not exactly sure, so it’s worth a shot! I just updated my woocommerce plug in for our portal side of our site and it appear pages of my woo commerce template are out of date.

This is the page I’ve been reading to figure out how to fix it, however I am confused by what exactly I need to do.
http://docs.woothemes.com/document/fix-outdated-templates-woocommerce/

system status screen shot

Answer: What this means is you need to get an updated copy of the Free WP template called Blank Slate.
If he does not answer another WP developer can fix the error. It’s usually to job of the developer to update their themes but since its free, he is not obligated to work on it.

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question
17
Jun
2015

Which hosting plan do I select ?

I constantly get asked by people as to what hosting plans works the best. It all depends on what kind of website you want to create. Do you want to create a BLOG, a business website, an ECOMMERCE SITE, or a Social Media Site  ( BuddyPress ). Below are my list of recommendations for hosting companies I haved used in the last 10 years.

 

A Small Orange – Small company in the Carolinas with great prices and great customer support. I parked over 12 domains here.

Hostmonster – My first hosting company I use over 12 years ago and I still highly recommend them

Hostgator – My favorite hosting company with good prices and fast customer support. Calling them is faster than using the chat software.

Siteground – My new hosting account for all my WordPress demo sites for my WP students. See my WP demo site here.

 

To find out prices and terms on hosting accounts, just click on the selected banner below.

 

Posted by WP Evangelist in Ask me a question