What’s changed: (to name a few)

• When we opened our doors YouTube existed but since then Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, Google +, Vine, Instagram and many more have become big players in the social media space.
• Internet shopping increased by 26% in the last year – so we can assume it’s increased by over 200+% in the last 8 years. Our first clients were afraid of using paypal and thought people wouldn’t trust the service.
• Magazines are dying at a rapid rate. Only the cream of the crop are surviving. Mags dropped 9.5% last year alone.
• More and more businesses are adopting social media as part of their communications plan.
• Mobile, Mobile, Mobile – multiple screen sizes and multiple user experiences on different devices. We aren’t designing for our desktops anymore.
• The authenticity is disappearing online – Marketers ruin everything – I should know I’m one of them.
• The largest demographic? Mommy blogger directories and communities are massive and are only getting bigger.

What’s still the same:

• If you are not passionate about the subject – you won’t keep up with it.
• Content is still king.
• Visual content has and probably always will receive the most shares and clicks.
• Video is definitely growing but photos are still leading in the content sharing arena.
• Email marketing is still on top.
• Google’s algorithms have changed (they change all the time) but strong content is still a big factor when looking for google ranking.
• The more niche and focused your blog/website the better.

We’ve seen more technology, social options, screen sizes and e-commerce in our field. It doesn’t matter what changes occur when it comes to marketing, one thing will always remain the same: you need to connect to your target market emotionally – in print, on TV and on the web.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with robots and living in an open world with little privacy – definitely thinking that will happen in the next 8 years. Maybe I should be careful of what I wish for.

Photo Credit: LenSlider

Spring has (sort of) sprung and we’re anxious to kick off a new season of exciting projects! As it happens, the good people at WordPress have also been busy bees – WordPress 3.6 is due to release in early May, and with it comes some very promising updates.

Here are some of the features that have us excited:

Post, Formatted:
Wordpress has really cleaned up their Post interface. The template is more user friendly, and the larger, cleaner icons remind users of the different formatting fun you can have with your post.

Embed YouTube Videos Seamlessly, Endlessly:
This is a feature that I’m personally excited about. Gone are the plug-ins needed to embed a YouTube video directly into your post. Simply copy and paste the video URL into your post et voila: your favourite video will appear in its full, embedded form. You can even play the video and resize it before your post goes live. WordPress is making it that much easier to share great content.

Multiple Author Blogs Rejoice:
Multiple author blogs can get messy when it comes to editing history and overlapping edits. Nothing is more frustrating than mismanaging posts and over-writing edited work. WordPress 3.6 features an improved post locking function. Previously, an often over looked red box would appear at the top of the screen when someone was working on a post, flagging the new comer that you are impeding on someone’s work. Now, a pop up box will appear with an avatar of the person who is currently working on the post. You have the option of leaving the post, previewing it, or ‘taking over’ editing the post  and kicking the other person out. You will be much more aware of your actions, and the editor will get a notification when they are kicked out, improving the lines of communication.

Furthermore, WordPress has upped its revision management game, and will track all revisions and offer a side-by-side screen presentation of two different edits of a post. You can recall earlier versions of a post and recall any changes made. Need to revert to an older version of a post? Not a problem. WordPress tracks all revisions made, and you can easily revert to older formats.

These are three of the top improvements we’re really looking forward to. When WordPress 3.6 rolls out in a few weeks, we’ll be on board. Have any questions about upgrading your WordPress? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help you out!

The days are always busy for the design and dev teams at The Blog Studio with builds, rebuilds and updates for our clients.

To help shed some light on the process and share some tips with the world, we got Developer and Rock Star, Mike Caputo to share his list of 10 Go To WordPress Plugins.

While you may not need all 10 of these plugins for your site, they may come in very handy if you’re looking for new options in your builds, or you’re just the type to check out a new idea to see if it fits better than what you’re using right now. Check out our list of 10 Go To Plugins and give yourself some new options for your next website.

Remember to read the reviews and to post any questions in WordPress forums before you jump in on a new plugin. And always, always, back up your website before you make changes. The last thing you need is to be pulling your hair out because something didn’t go as planned on try #1.

The Blog Studio’s Most Installed Plugins:

1) AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild – Allows you to rebuild all thumbnails on your site. It is very useful when building sites that already have Featured Images.

2) Contact Form 7 – Contact Form 7 has the capacity to manage multiple contact forms, with the option of easily customizing the form and the mail contents with simple markup.

3) Twitter Widget Pro – A widget that properly handles Twitter feeds, including parsing @usernames. The best Twitter widget plugin we’ve found!

4) Advanced Custom Fields – Helps make custom fields for multiple purposes on websites. Comes in handy very often.

5) W3 Total Cache – The only WordPress Performance Optimization framework; designed to improve UX and page speed. Best caching plugin we’ve found. Note: Does not work on all server environments

6) Advanced Text Widget – Features Include: 10 Default widget visibility conditions with over 20 application possibilities – Unlimited custom conditions – “Advanced Text” widget with raw PHP support and shortcodes execution.

7) Options Framework – Makes it easy to include an options panel in any WordPress theme based on your needs ie. text input – checkbox – select – radio button – upload (image uploader)/

8) Simple Backup – According to Mike: “The easiest way to run a backup.”

9) WordPress Backup to Dropbox – Allows clients to choose the day, time and frequency of backups – as well as dumping their websites files and a SQL database in their Dropbox account!

10) Max Banner Ads – Free/Paid versions allow you to “easily add and rotate banners in your wordpress blog anywhere you like without editing any themes or touching any code.”

There you have it, The Blog Studio’s list of 10 Go To WordPress Plugins. We hope that you find something that makes your website better and your life easier!

After you’ve written and posted your content the question becomes this: Which is the best comment moderation system for your website?

There are multiple options for comment moderation available and each one brings to the table its own pros and cons. I sat with our development team to learn more and there doesn’t seems to be a clear winner in the field, but one thing is for sure – there are programs that are more popular than others. Our list of the most seen/used comment moderation systems includes:
- Disqus
- Livefyre
- Intense Debate
- Facebook commenting
- WordPress and Blogger default commenting systems

Facebook may be the most recognizable name but it is perhaps the least functional of all of the options.
PROS:

• It notify commenters’ friends when they engage with your post
• It includes the Like feature
• It does prevent a certain level of spam and trolling by making all commenters sign into their Facebook account before leaving a comment

CONS:

• Only Facebook users can comment on your posts
• Users are not able to make any anonymous comments when discussing sensitive topics and in any environment where Facebook is blocked (like workplaces or schools).

Intense Debate was developed and released by the creators of WordPress, which gives it an edge in compatibility with WordPress websites. While it hasn’t been around as long as Disqus, it’s key attributes are:
PROS:

• Notifications to commenters when follow up comments have been made
• Twitter sign in
• OpenID
• Guest sign in
• Commenter reputation and comment voting options

CONS:

• The largest drawback seems to be increased moderation requirements compared to some other options

Livefyre seems to be gaining popularity in the commenting game.
PROS:

• It’s most redeeming quality is it’s mobile friendly layout
• Real time comments
• Email notification on follow up comments
• “@” messages between commenters in threads
• the ability to ban abusive commenters

CONS:

• Need to sign in and comment using Livefyre, Facebook or Twitter only – no guest access available
• Because Livefyre is a newer option, it hasn’t yet picked up as much popularity as some competitors

Disqus is the most popular option on the list.
PROS

• More users signed up and more websites using it than the other options brings – familiarity and access to commenters
• Ability to sign in with Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID and as a Guest
• Supports blacklist/ whitelist and word filtering as a way of auto-controlling incoming comments/spam
• Real time commenting
• Ability to add pictures and videos to comments.

CONS:

• The most commonly mentioned cons for Disqus is comment migration when adding or removing it from a site
• Can also slow down the load time of your website

All of the options available have their advantages and disadvantages, and there are definitely more options available than the 4 we’ve reviewed above.

As always, we recommend looking at all of your options and asking questions before you decide to make a change or try something new with your website. Remember, no matter which comment moderation system you use, your content needs to compel your readers to join the discussion!

Please share what commenting system you use and any pros and cons you’d like to add to our list.

Research Your Influencers
One of the biggest points from the report was highlighting the slightly disjointed relationship between brand marketers and influencers. The report says that often, brands look to influencer’s ComScore when choosing someone to work with, when in reality, this might not always be the best source for finding an influencer to work with, as the numbers do not always fairly represent the influencer. In order to establish Influencers to help your brand reach audiences that you might not have access to, conducting research beyond ComScore numbers is key. What kind of following do they have? How responsive is their community? Is it always growing? There are other elements to consider when approaching an Influencer. You also have to recognize if they will be a good fit for your brand. Just because your product might be in the same industry as an Influencer’s expertise, it might not correlate well. Research your Influencers and take a look at their community and their content before you jump right into numbers.

Measuring Your Success
There still remains the slightly sticky topic of ROI and measurement on a ‘successful’ campaign when Influencers are engaged for a promotion. Technorati’s report outlines that there is a lack of uniform metrics to effectively measure the success of campaigns. Influencers are looking to pageviews and traffic whereas brand marketers are looking at Facebook likes. Before finalizing a campaign, it is within both parties’ interests to define what a successful campaign would look like. That is to say – if the objective is brand awareness and reaching new demographics, pageviews and traffic sources might be of value. If you’re looking to Facebook likes, you might want to reach out to an Influencer who has a strong Facebook community. None the less, having a conversation prior to campaign launch about objectives will help drive the campaign forward and yield more satisfactory results.

Get Mobile
We all know by now that your brand should be social but what does that mean? It means that you should be connecting with audiences through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. 90% of brands have a presence on Facebook. That’s a staggering number – and you don’t want to be left out. YouTube and Facebook are the top two sources used on the Internet. Over the next year – spend on social will rise 59%. What’s more interesting is that spend on mobile is expected to increase 79%. With those numbers you definitely want to make sure your site is responsive (you can read more about responsive design here). You don’t want to alienate any part of your audience or advertisers by not having a mobile friendly layout for your website. Pay attention to your analytics and see where your traffic is coming from. With mobile digital spend on the rise, you definitely want to be accommodating to the trend. What are your takes on this years report?

We’d love to hear your agreements, disagreements or general comments!

Our friends over at Sysomos posted a blog recently with some great reasons why blogging is still important in a world where Facebook updates and Tweets are the most prevalent forms of online information sharing.

The post says that blogging is important (read it here) and we agree!

Using a blog on your own website gives you and your brand the opportunity to talk about what is important to you and your community without worrying about restricting character limits or complicated sharing algorithms. A blog is a place to share thoughts and ideas and announcements that deserve explanation and expanded thoughts.

When you’re writing for your blog remember a few things that can help with your success moving forward.

Be Consistent:
Consistency is key. Not only in posting frequency, but in voice as well. Just like in your marketing materials and social media, the voice that you use in your blog posts should be part of the same plan and execution.

Say Something:
This may be the hardest part of blogging for your brand. While it’s important to be consistent with your posts and hit the publish button often, posting something without any relevance to your company or community should be avoided.

Say It Well:
We know that not everyone is a writer. And we know that writing doesn’t come easily to some people. But if you are going to write a blog it is important to make sure that you aren’t posting with spelling errors, typos, overlooked grammatical issues and other easily remediable mistakes.

Blogging is still a great option for brands to say what they want to say, how they want to say it. It’s also a great way to get people on your website where they can find more information about your brand and what you do and what you have to offer!

So, if you think you’ve still got something to say – keep blogging! We can’t wait to read it!

Update: WordPress 3.5 is now available! The launch date was pushed back from the original target of December 5 to December 11.

There are some changes coming with the update to WordPress 3.5, and one of them is something that you will probably notice right off the top. Twenty Twelve has become the new default theme and is now available for download if you want to test it or see how it may change your website if you are currently using WordPress 3.4.2 or higher. Twenty Twelve is a fully responsive theme that will adjust to fit the screen size for anyone who stumbles across your site on their desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.

There are also updates coming to the media management and how you upload photos, arrange galleries, insert images into posts, and more. These changes will make media handling easier and more intuitive as an overall experience in WordPress for users of all backgrounds, experience levels and needs. The simplified process is easy to learn, easy to use and allows you to work quickly with your media uploads. It’s a large scale upgrade from the developers at WordPress and it will be interesting to see if the reaction from users equals the time and effort that the team has put into the changes.

Added to WordPress 3.5 is something that bloggers have been waiting for (somewhat patiently) for quite some time now, a Tumblr importer support. While everyone loves Tumblr, it certainly doesn’t match up with WordPress when it comes to customizable options and development. Now that you have the option of importing all of your Tumblr posts that you love, you can start with a better system and have a better website.

Here are some instructions for setting up your Tumblr import from Technosailor.com: On the Settings > Import page, you can now activate Tumblr import support. Warning: The process of importing Tumblr is a little kludgey and that is due to Tumblr’s own systems. You will need to register an app with Tumblr, enter certain key information about your WordPress install into the Tumblr app registration page, and copy certain key information into WordPress.

Wordpress 3.5 will also give you the chance to browse and install plugins that you have marked as favorites on WordPress.org, right from your dashboard. It’s an addition that could become very helpful to developers who have plugins that they find themselves using on a regular basis. Anything that saves time and is easy to use is a win. You can also search user names to see what plug-ins other developers have marked as favourties which is a great way to make better websites based on the sites that you like.

Another change is the removal of the Link Manager or Blogroll. The change means that all link management will have to be done through plugins moving forward. Many people saw the old Blogroll system as antiquated since WordPress is being used as a full scale website development tool more now than ever before and many professional web developers using WordPress seem to be happy that this old school feature has been removed.

Other changes include:
- Retina Display Admin to allow for more clarity in print versions and better resolution and rendering on high end Macs, iPhone 5, iPad 3, Kindle HD and many new Android devices.
- A simplified welcome screen and dashboard for new users which should make starting with WordPress easier for new website developers and bloggers.
- A more advanced color picker to assist in everything design related in your day to day use of WordPress.
- A new look on the buttons on your add new post screen that removes the rounded edges and goes with a cleaner, squared up look.
- Improved keyboard navigation and screen reader support for easier day to day use and management of your WordPress website.

As always, remember to back-up all of your files and information before you upgrade to the newest version of WordPress or give us a call and we’ll help you upgrade.

Keep your eyes on the web for reviews and information as more users and developers start using their update, and let us know what you think of the NEW WordPress 3.5!

The book is an accumulation of the best content from rookiemag.com an online magazine that grew from Tavi Gevinson’s blog that she started at age 11. Rookie Mag is a teen bible of sorts, a counter cultural voice for all teens that don’t fit the typical mold.

The event consisted of readings by the webzines contributors on topics including stereotypes, sexuality, cliques, feminism, overcoming adversity and a performance by the cutest girl group ever “super cute”. I was fascinated that many of the writers were reading their entries off their iPhones – definitely a sign of the times.

I was a teen once and I’m positive that my writing wasn’t close to being as good as these teens – heck their writing is better than mine will ever be. I’m excited and can’t wait to see what the future holds for these talented and beautiful bloggers/writers, they are all incredibly badass cool.

The room was filled with adoring teens dressed in the best hipster gear – giggling throughout the readings and cheering at their favourite parts. Dozens of fans wearing crowns of love (a must have for all rookies – you can learn how to make one here). These teens are introspective, beautiful, vulnerable, creative and truly talented.

Special guest writer, director and producer of HBO’s Girls Lena Dunham shared hilarious entries from her millennium journal, like her motto that was: “just because people don’t understand you, doesn’t mean you’re an artist.” She was gracious and fantastic giving each teen a moment of her time. With her latest pixie cut, fun energy and clever coolness her presence matched the room perfectly.

I’ve always loved that blogging leads to so many magical discoveries and opportunities: In this case a positive and smart place for teens to embrace who they are and to find support when needed.

If you want to understand what goes on in teenage minds definitely pick up a copy of the book. We especially love the work by lead artist Sonja Ahlers.

 
Responsive Design is:

• Inclusive
• Adaptible
• Cost Effective
• Efficient
• Probably your best option

With no shortage to the screen sizes, user preferences and devices that your website is being viewed on today (yes, today) it is important that you have a design that allows for the best user experience possible at all times for all people. Responsive design allows for a preferable user experience while ensuring that the information that you want to show is included, available and convenient.

The Blog Studio has been using responsive layouts on client websites for close to a year and we use responsive design as the #1 option when a client comes in looking for a new website or a redesign of their current web property.

While designing a responsive website may include more planning and build time, with a higher cost up front, it will save you time, money and frustration in the mid and long-term. Imagine looking at ONE web solution for both personal computers and mobile devices of all display sizes. That option of removing multiple apps, designs and support for specific platforms is already a measurable savings of time, money and resources!

Example: Your website has a thumbnail photo gallery in the sidebar and text link navigation when viewed on a desktop. However, when viewed on a mobile device’s smaller screen you’d like to clean that up by removing the sidebar photos as they’ll be much smaller and impossible to enjoy – you also want to change to a drop-down navigation menu to better use your space. Responsive design lets you do that with ONE website!

The day to day and long-term benefits to using a responsive layout are many. Not only will you save time on future updates to the design and functionality of your website moving forward, you will also streamline your content posting process by moving everything to one place. Create your content, post once and allow everyone can see it. A responsive layout also removes any chance of someone sharing a link to your content that is not compatible with the device that it is opened with.

With an estimated 10% of web browsing happening on mobile devices worldwide and growth coming year after year, mobile can not be ignored in your web strategy. The maintenance, software version updates, content uploads, and other day-to-day work is exponentially increased by giving yourself multiple web properties to work with.

Not everyone is in need of a top-of-the-line mobile solution. Know your site’s audience and requirements. However, if you see mobile as a large part of your plan and you know how important it is going to be moving forward, you should be considering responsive design as an option.

Everybody’s doing it.

We’ve been prepping for this panel for a while now and we created a little video we’ll be showing at SXSW. We thought we’d share it with you first because ya’ll are awesome.