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WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Posted on July 14, 2011 by in Articles, interesting, Tutorial, wordpress

Installing WordPress can be either an easy or difficult process, depending on which hosting company you’re working with. For people using Bluehost, Dreamhost, and Godaddy all you need to do is go into the control panel and do what is called a “one-click installation.” When running a “one-click installation” script you are basically telling the host where on the server you’d like the WordPress files to be placed, and creating a mysql database (with username and password) to house all the information that will be pulled in through the WordPress site. That is the quick and painless way to create a WordPress site, but not all hosting companies are created equal.

Recently, my colleague and I were in the market for a new company to host our client’s sites on. We were in search of a host that has great support, technology to accommodate database driven sites, respects the privacy of its clients, and has security measures in place which will prevent client sites from being hacked. After reviewing a slew of hosting companies we discovered Rackspace. Not only do sites (referred to as Cloud Sites) hosted on Rackspace run fast, but their chat support is informative and efficient. The only downfall to Rackspace is the arduous process required for doing a WordPress installation on a cloud site. Rackspace cloud sites do not have a “one-click installation” option, so to create a WordPress site you must start from scratch, and do it manually.

This post is split into four sections:
How to Create a Client
How to Add a Site
How to Create a Database
How to Install WordPress on the Server

Read More…

Ways to Backup Your WordPress Site

Posted on June 9, 2011 by in Articles, interesting, wordpress

Oh no! My dog ate my website! That is exactly what it feels like when you upgrade your WordPress site and your older plugins don’t exactly get along with the new software. When dealing with WordPress, it is not uncommon to run into a few bugs and hiccups. Sometimes you upgrade for security (like when a new version of WordPress is released). Or maybe the newer version of that plugin you love runs much faster or looks much sleeker than its crusty predecessor. Whatever reason you chose to modify your WordPress setup, it is imperative that you back everything up – just in case things go wrong (and they do).

So – without ado – here are a few options that will help (and most likely save) you or your client’s website.
Read More…

7 Useful Tools for Twitter

Posted on May 31, 2011 by in interesting

Twitter is one of the fastest growing destinations on the web today. People from all walks of life are tweeting about what’s going on the world, and why it’s important to them. But, like the old saying goes, “there is more than one way to skin a cat” there are many ways to use Twitter and ride the wave of its ever-growing popularity. Some people believe that Twitter should be able to do more than it already does. We like to call these people perfectionists, and they have taken the time to build tools to not only enable the “missing” functionality, but help make Twitter even better for normal users like you and I. Below are 7 tools that are sure to enhance the Twitter dance. Use them with caution. They are highly addictive.

This article is reposted from Web Design Ledger by Henry Jones

TwileShare

TwileShare is a free service that allows you to share files on Twitter. Supported file types include: PNG, GIF, JPG, DOC or PDF.

Read More…

Tech4Good Meetup Discusses Online Community Building

Posted on April 28, 2011 by in interesting, meetup

Tech4Good is a meetup group that connects people from all types of industries. Whether you are a non-profit organization, a funder, a programmer, an individual with a great idea, or a social changemaker, this meetup group will welcome you.

As most good meetups do, members are encouraged to share, learn and collaborate.

This month’s speaker, Justin Isaf, briefed folks about the benefits of managing communities. Justin currently manages 4 million comments a month for the Huffington Post Media Group, and has eight years of experience building highly leveraged online communities.

He covered topics like :
- how to spot the trolls who spam communities
- the importance of reaching critical mass of contributors and commenters
- how to get people talking to each other
- and…a URL to download an e-book version of Randy Farmer’s Building Web Reputation Systems.

Justin also offered three tactical approaches to leveraging communities (Twitter, Forums, and Blogs) while giving insight into their strengths and weaknesses. Twitter, for example, can be used to build conversations between followers, but those kinds of communities will never grow as large as the more traditional Forums. Blogs, on the other hand, give Community Managers more control over their communities than the other two approaches. Justin also discussed the Pros and Cons of being a community manager. “You need to have thick skin to do this work,” he stated after describing an experience where one of his former community leaders started spreading rumors about him on the web.

Read More…

New Directors / New Films New Website

Posted on February 17, 2011 by in interesting

There’s no other way to say this – we’re really proud to announce the launch of NDNF’s new site : http://newdirectors.org.

In collaboration with the MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, we built a custom WordPress theme to house the film festival’s lineup. In celebration of the festival’s 40th anniversary, we developed a few custom post types to store the 300+ films in their archives. The website includes a directory of films, along their directors, and an interactive timeline.

The design was put together by MoMA’s fabulously talented Art Director, Brigitta Bungard.

For a preview of what’s to come on the big screen, take a look at the listing of this year’s films.


UPDATE : You can read a bit more about the festival on the NYTimes.

MTV Act Launch

Posted on February 1, 2011 by in interesting

We’ve got super exciting news – a project we’ve been working on with MTV + Purpose is finally out in the wild!

MTV Act Blog

Together with the fantastic design and strategy team at Purpose, we developed a custom wordpress plugin for MTV’s Act Blog, helping move people towards collective action.

Some of the basic tech details …

Our custom plugin utilizes custom post types to allow MTV to build a directory of actions. The plugin also connects directly to the Social Actions database and gives the MTV bloggers access to a large set of actions to plug into their posts.

MTV Act Widget

We also worked with the Gigya API – this particular piece encourages visitors to share their actions with their friends.

Many thanks to all the folks who spent countless hours working on this!

Exciting! @MTVact is live - we're using the @socialactions API along with @gigya - check it out : http://act.mtv.com cc @CDEgger
February 1, 2011 10:52 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jackomo
Jaki Levy

EarStudio Relaunches New Site in WordPress

Posted on January 17, 2011 by in interesting

It’s been a busy few months. In addition to launching a new photography site, this past November, we helped relaunch EarStudio.com, a digital media studio founded by artist Ben Rubin. Ben has collaborated with great folks like Laurie Anderson, Paul Virillio and Diller+Scofidio/Renfro. In 2007, he was commissioned to install Moveable Type in the NYTimes building.

Using WordPress + the Thesis Theme, we were able to deliver a fully manageable site. The new site includes a featured content gallery, a blog, galleries within every page (using the Simpleviewer wordpress plugin), and a completely customizable sidebar. And because we’re using the Thesis Theme Framework, he can update a majority of his fonts and colors without knowing any CSS code.

Check out the site and let us know what you think!

Ear Studio

And if you live in NYC, make sure to check out his new solo show at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. It’s awesome!

New Photography Site

Posted on January 17, 2011 by in interesting

We’re happy to announce the launch of a new wordpress site for NYC Based Photographer, Kristofer Dan-Bergman. The site features a full gallery system, a sweet blog, and a nice slideshow on the homepage. The site was built with ThemeFoundry’s awesome Photography Theme.

You can see Kristofer’s live site by clicking here or clicking the image below

Below is a conversation I had with Drew Strojny, the founder of ThemeFoundry re: the launch -

Just launched a new Wordpress Site for a photographer : http://kristoferdanbergman.com - thnx 2 @drewstrojny and the @thethemefoundry team!
January 17, 2011 11:47 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jackomo
Jaki Levy

@jackomo You're welcome! Site looks awesome :)
January 17, 2011 4:05 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite
@drewstrojny
drewstrojny

And, for those interested in getting the theme, click here to purchase the Photography Theme.

Creating with Social Media

Posted on October 12, 2010 by in interesting

Today, I’ll be speaking at Pratt on the topic of social media. Personally, I hate the phrase social media, but love the ethos of sharing, collaboration, and coordinated groups. For those who can’t make it (or for those tuning in after the discussion), take a look at the articles I’ll be mentioning : Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Small Change : The revolution will not be tweeted” in the New Yorker, as well as Beth Kanter’s reponse, Social Media for Good.

This workshop is partly based on the class I am currently teaching “Creating with Social Media“

you can register for the class here

The Real Life Social Network v2
View more documents from Paul Adams.

Go Take a Hike – with Elastic City

Posted on August 6, 2010 by in interesting

Elastic City Logo

This Summer, Elastic City (one of our recently launched projects), is giving walks throughout New York City. But these are not your typical tourist walks. These walks are led by artists. Todd Shalom, the founder of Elastic City, realized the idea while suffering from altitude sickness in Cusco, Peru.

The walks intend to make its audience active participants in an ongoing poetic exchange with the places we live in and visit. Artists are commissioned by Elastic City to create their own walks. These walks tend to focus less on providing factual information and more on heightening our awareness, exploring our senses and making new group rituals in dialogue with public space in the city.

The walks have been featured in TimeoutNY, WNYC, Wallstreet Journal, Gothamist, and other publications.

To listen Todd talk about the walks on WNYC, click here, or hit play on the player below

Browse the walks listing and rediscover New York.

Upcoming classes at 3rd Ward

Posted on May 8, 2010 by in interesting

This Spring and Summer, I’ll be leading a series of workshops and classes at 3rd Ward. Topics will focus on ecommerce, online marketing, social media, online communications, building an online audience, and finally – a 3-part wordpress workshop.

The classes were initially designed to be taken together, but are now flexible enough to be taken as individual components. Below is a description of all the courses.

Curious about past courses and workshops I’ve led? Want to peruse lots resources or just kill a Saturday nigt? Great. Check out my new archive of workshop resources.

Create Using Social Media

Facebook is now among the top 3 most visited sites in the world. This course will focus on how to leverage platforms like twitter, facebook, and flickr to create dialogue around your work, support your research, and build community. Many artists, non profits, and businesses are successfully using these online publishing platforms to share their mission, values, and process.
Section 1: Tuesday 7:00-10:00p, May 11

More info…

Email marketing is the most effective way to reach your customers, audiences, donors, and constituents. During the workshop, we’ll cover best practices for generating effective email campaigns. We’ll take time to actually consider what you can do to grab your reader, and move them to action.

Section 1: Monday 7-10p, May 24

More info…

Learn the basic mechanisms of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button? We’ll cover the necessary steps to set up and run your own online store: Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to utilize your ecommerce technology.
Section 1: Tuesday 7-10p, May 25

More info…

Setting Up an Ecommerce Site

Posted on February 4, 2010 by in interesting

This winter, I’ll be teaching a series of classes at 3rd Ward. The first part of the series will be a workshop focused on setting up an ecommerce store. We will look at live sites and multiple ecommerce platforms. This will be a great class and flexible enough to meet your needs. Read below for more

REGISTER HERE

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Running an online store enables you to sell your works and products without the constraints of time and space. This seminar serves as a crash course in running your own online business. Two main topics will be covered:

The basic mechanism of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button?

Steps to set up and run your own online store. Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to go about your ecommerce technology. Consider buying an off-the-shelf solution, renting technology from a 3rd party provider, or using open-source or free shopping cart software packages. Learn about payment processing with PayPal, 3rd-party hosting and doing it yourself. Get familiar with shipping methods, managing inventory and your products, securing online transactions, designing your store appearance, and basic search engine optimization (SEO).

Instructor
Jaki Levy founded Arrow Root Media, a New Media Production and Consulting company. Jaki has worked with multiple non-profits, including: Issue Project Room, The Field, Dance/USA, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Queens Council on the Arts, DanceBrazil, and Soundstreams.  His online initiatives and work with Misnomer Dance Theater helped the company secure over $1.25 million in grants from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to help develop new initiatives for the arts online. He was also the recipient of Cisco’s $25,000 Digital Incubator grant. In 2010, he will be officially launching elastic-city.com, a full ecommerce site devoted to artistic walking tours in NYC.

Location
573 Metropolitan (btw Lorimer & Union), Brooklyn

REGISTER HERE

Organizing 2.0: How to Plan for Your Website Redesign

Posted on December 9, 2009 by in interesting

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
- someone who planned

Whether you’ve got an existing site, or need a new one, you need to plan either way. While a web designer or programmer can help you build a site, it’s up to you to figure out “What do I need?”

Organizing 2.0: How to Plan for Your Website Redesign

(via Julie Blitzer @ Advomatic)

New Site: Hudson Valley BarnHouse

Posted on December 8, 2009 by in interesting

So what’s been happening down at the barn?

Well, glad you asked…

We just recently launched a new site: Hudson Valley BarnHouse

The site was built for a rental property in Warwick, NY offering rentals to vacationers and people who simply want to get away. The site features a full lightbox gallery, fully customizable font colors, and is completely mobile friendly (so people on the go can navigate to the property).

I’ve included a few pictures below, but go ahead and see the site for yourself. Heck – who knows – you just might find a great new deal for your next winter vacation!

(thanks to the Elegant Themes community for great support and great themes)

Watch the video below for a glimpse on how the web is touching people everyday.
(via Gawker)

(thanks for the video Mitch!)

Ecommerce Solutions

Posted on November 22, 2009 by in interesting, Tutorial

Note: This post was written for participants in an ecommerce seminar. Please feel free to leave questions + comments below

To sell items online, you need:
a payment gateway (like paypal) to process payments
a good shopping cart solution
an SSL seal (if you’re processing credit cards on your website)

If you’re starting from scratch, don’t have the support of a developer, or just want an online store, consider Shopify. They have beautiful templates, and can help your online store get up and running quickly. Review pricing and take a tour of what
Shopify offers. They’re great!

Below is a “short” list of payment gateways and shopping cart solutions.

PAYMENT GATEWAYS

A payment gateway processes the payment for you. Paypal is by far the most popular payment gateways. Here is a list of other payment gateways.

Paypal
The current leader in processing sales online. They have a great list of resources for shopping carts here.

Google Checkout
Take a look at their merchant center – it’s chock full of resources

ejunkie
A fantastic solution, starts at $5/month. Take a look at their pricing)

Authorize.net
If you want to process credit cards with your own bank, authorize.net is the way to go. Fees usually start at $20/month. You will need to purchase an SSL seal to use Authorize.net.

ONLINE INVOICING

Use Freshbooks. Get a free account on Freshbooks.

SHOPPING CARTS

NOTE: If you’re running your website with WordPress, use WP-ecommerce. If you’re running your website with Drupal, use Ubercart. Otherwise, there are these other solid solutions.

Read More…

Upcoming Workshops at 3rd Ward

Posted on November 18, 2009 by in interesting

I hope you’ll be able to join me this weekend at 3rdWard.

I’ll be leading 2 seminars on e-commerce and online marketing.

The workshops will be at 537 Metropolitan Ave

ONLINE MARKETING

This seminar offers a quick overview and demos of a variety of free/cheap tools and resources for your online marketing and promotional needs. From blogs, social networks, RSS feeds, twitter, friendfeed, Google AdWords and mailing list management, to tools that enable easy sharing of your content, gathering of user comments, simple-to-make animations, photo-video slide shows, and annotated video clips.  We’ll also discuss the all-important search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

To better use these services, we will discuss the basic ideas behind them and how they function together. We will also cover how to design marketing and promotion projects for your own business.

ECOMMERCE (register)

Running an online store enables you to sell your works and products without the constraints of time and space. This seminar serves as a crash course in running your own online business. Two main topics will be covered:

The basic mechanism of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button?

Steps to set up and run your own online store. Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to go about your ecommerce technology. Consider buying an off-the-shelf solution, renting technology from a 3rd party provider, or using open-source or free shopping cart software packages. Learn about payment processing with PayPal, 3rd-party hosting and doing it yourself. Get familiar with shipping methods, managing inventory and your products, securing online transactions, designing your store appearance, and basic search engine optimization (SEO), etc.