I had the opportunity to talk with Rick Calvert, the founder and organizer of the event, and he was generous enough to provide me with a discount code just for my clients, and visitors of my website. So, if you have not yet registered - then use this special discount code to get 20% OFF your Blog World and New Media Expo registration: EWVIP. That’s my gift, from me to you - no strings attached

NOTE: This discount code expires on 9/1 - so be sure to use it before then! Also, the discount code does not include the cost of travel/hotel - it covers only the cost of your BWE registration.

Once you’ve registered - drop me a line and let me know that you’re planning on attending - - perhaps we could chat over coffee!

The conference is geared towards people who publish their own media - whether it’s bloggers, podcasters, video bloggers, photographers.. it pretty much runs covers everyone who is publishing today. From the Blog World Expo website:

Any Blogger, Vlogger, Podcaster, Internet TV or Radio Broadcaster, Social Media expert or producer of any other form of new media content. If you blog about business, technology, politics, sports, lifestyle & culture, general news items, or celebrity gossip…if you are a Milblogger, or Godblogger, or advocate a social position you need to be here. If you are serious about your blogging, If you want to increase your readership, improve the look or functionality of your blog, if you want to influence decision makers, sell a product or service, if you want to promote yourself as an industry expert, or build your brand using new media then you cannot afford to miss BlogWorld & New Media Expo.

Check out the Conference Schedule - it’s pretty packed with great panels and speakers who are well known and knowledgeable in their specific areas. From SEO to Social Media…. Professional Blogging and tools of the trade - this conference has got it covered. Just Day One of the schedule looks pretty packed - - it’s going to be a hard choice on what presentation we will be attending on that day.

I didn’t get to attend last year due to scheduling problems on my end (read: too much work, not enough time!) - but the reports I heard from people who did attend were really positive and amazing. Lots of great information presented, blogging tools, good networking with others in your niche, great presentations and teaching - I didn’t hear a negative thing about it.

Realtor, Jesse Kaye, approached E.Webscapes for a custom designed theme for his WordPress blog, Keys To New Jersey, where he writes about real estate opportunities and information/resources local to the New Jersey, and surrounding, areas. Jesse came to us with a custom illustration he commissioned and asked us to use it in his new design project . . .

Leanne was the designer on this project and she provided Jesse with a fantastic 3-column WordPress theme, designed around his custom illustration that he provided. His site also integrates the IDX Search function that is very popular on Real Estate blogs and websites…it allows visitors to perform a drill down search on properties available in your local area - - by county, city, property type, price range, number of rooms, etc. A really nice feature if you’re running a blog or web site in the Real Estate niche!

Bobby, from Pointless Banter is one funny guy. His brand of humor may not be for everyone .. his comedy can be a little raw, but it sure did make this project a lot of fun to work on! Pointless Banter is his insanely popular comedy blog and he approached me for a brand new design and completely new layout and organization for his existing content. . .

Interested in more of a ‘Magazine’ type layout for his site, he wanted it to be less of a blog, and more of a portal into his diverse content that he offers on his site. Bobby was one of those client who said “Black..red..gray.. and pretty much I trust you to do whatever..“. That is, until I did ‘whatever’ - - it was then that he decided that he really did have a direction in mind that he wanted to go and after providing him my first mock up for his design, THEN we really got down to business and his ideas started to flow a little better.

After some more back and forth communication and sharing of ideas - we came up with a terrific Magazine-style theme for his WordPress powered blog. The blog doesn’t display his content like you’re used to in a WordPress blog. Stepping away from the usual chronological display of posts with archived lists in a sidebar - - we laid out the content of his site and organized them into a few featured topics.

One area of his site displays featured posts that he affectionately calls “Featured Crap of the Week”. It’s in this section that he is able to feature several different posts, from several different categories - with teaser excerpts and images. In another section of his site, he’s able to display teaser snippets from his selected categories - - and at the very top of his site, he displays his Leading Article, which is an article that he wants to display front and center. He can choose to display that post for as long as he wants to, despite additional posts made to his site. Unlike chronological listings of posts - - his Leading Article does not get moved down the page when he makes new posts to his blog, so he can feature it as a Lead Article for however long he needs/wants to. Pretty spiffy!

In addition to all this functionality, I also built in a nice tabbed navigation on his front page that displays his most popular posts, video posts and most recent comments - - and that guy gets just a TON of comments on his blog, he needed a nice tidy place to show case them! I also built a nice custom container for him to display his Featured Video. All of that along with some custom treatment to his social bookmarking features, related articles and advertising space and we were done!

He’s pretty happy with the results of all of our hard work - so much so, that he’s returned to me for a few additional sites that I’ll be working on over the coming months:

“I needed to have my comedy website redesigned. Personally I felt that a redesign would help take the site to the next level. I worked with Lisa and she designed a concept that showed off my content, tightened my presentation, and transformed my site from a personal comedy blog to more of a comedy hub on the internet.

I look forward to working with her on future projects.”

I’m looking forward to it, as well - thank you!

Dino recently completed and launched the cool new custom design for SOON Trends, a blog powered by Typepad; a blog for intellectually curious and creative marketing executives, market research professionals and communication creatives looking for consumer trends inspiration and insights in their daily work….

SOON Trends wanted to couple fun and trendy design elements with a professional and clean interface to display their content, resources, links and information. Using Typepad’s Advanced Template feature, Custom CSS and custom graphic design - Dino produced a design that Ole, from SOON Trends, was very pleased with. Dino also helped them integrate their existing TypePad TypeLists, as well as the popular Share This social bookmarking feature that allows readers to very easily submit their content to any number of social bookmark sites (like Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble, etc), as well as post it to their own blog or email their blog posts to a friend. Pretty nifty!

Dino had a lot of fun with this design, and the folks from SOON Trends are very happy with the end result!

Dino recently completed the new design and development of Summertime Family - a WordPress powered site owned by Trudy who is a very busy mom - but finds some time in her day to share great summertime family activities and special things, just for Moms. Dino created a really stunning custom Magazine theme for Trudy’s blog. . .

Unlike a typical WordPress blog, Summertime Family is laid out with their content displayed in a categorical format, rather than a chronological listing of posts. The categories/topics are neatly aligned and special attention paid to custom fields that pull in topical images for each category display.

Dino and Trudy spent sometime communication on her needs for this design and Dino shared some very pretty stock illustration pieces from IStockPhoto.com - she found some nice imagery she wanted to use, and Dino went to work, providing her with a very clean, professional and feminine blog design in a blue, white and pink color scheme, with plenty of white space and room to display her content, ads and sponsors.

Trudy was SO happy with the result of her E.Webscapes design project:

Hey Dino!
Oh my goodness. I just looked at it and it is so awesome! I love how you made the google ad box pink. And thanks so much for going into detail on all of the above so that I’ll know what to touch and what to leave alone. It really is awesome and you did a beautiful job! I can’t wait to start adding posts.
I don’t have any questions yet, but I am going to get in there today and attempt some posts. When I start adding stuff, I might have a question or two then. I am so happy with your design - it’s beautiful.

Thanks again!
Trudy

That pretty much says it all! Thank you, Trudy

Leanne recently completed the new design for Weblog Bahamas, a Typepad powered blog by Rick Lowe, on topics related to the Bahamas, written by multiple Bahamian authors. Rick wanted a very simple, conservative design in a three column layout, as well as continue ability to utilize the very handy Typepad Widgets so he does not have to worry about tinkering with the template code in order to change the arrangments and elements in his sidebars…

Rick wanted simple with a design that included elements of paper and pen - to signify writing. Leanne provided him with just that, in a soothing color scheme of blues, cream and greens. After trading a few ideas back and forth - Rick had this to say when he saw the final graphic mock up of his design:

Wow Leanne!
I’m impressed.
Let’s roll!

With that, Leanne proceeded to develop Ricks custom Typepad blog design utilizing the Custom CSS feature available to Typepad users. This enables Rick to continue using Typepad Widgets, uninterrupted - which is great, since he didn’t want to worry about learning the code require to tweak his own templates.

Audacia Ray approached E.Webscapes to redesign her new blog at Waking Vixen. I do have to note, before we go further - Audacia’s website is NOT safe for work, so please be warned if you choose to visit! Audacia had been blogging on Blogger for 3 years before deciding to make the move over to WordPress. She requested a nice, clean.. yet classy design - but more importantly, she wanted a site that she could easily update herself with her photos, videos and content. . .

Leanne was the designer of note on this particular project and she provided Audacia with exactly what she was looking for in her design work. The top menu of her site is a dynamic CSS drop down menu that allows the reader to hover over the general areas to reveal much much more content within Waking Vixen’s site - - all of the gems she has hidden inside! Audacia’s front page is a welcome page - using the static page feature within WordPress. Browsing deeper in her site brings you to her regularly update blog, information on books she has authored, videos and photos - plus a whole lot more!

She was pretty thrilled when Leanne completed the launch of her site.. “Thanks, I’m really excited about the new design - both it’s look and functionality are top notch!“

I redesigned Susan’s blog at Got 2 Be Green in December, and I was really thrilled when she came back and approached me to do her newest site, San Diego Fun! SanDiegoFun.net is a travel and information site on destination: San Diego! Planning a trip there soon.. or maybe you live there and are looking for fun things to do? Check out San Diego Fun - Susan’s got it all covered there! We had a lot of fun with this design…

This site was a combined effort between myself and one of our graphic designers, Devin Boyle. I completed all of the development of the templates and the detailed graphic design elements, and Devin completed the main foundation design of the site, including the the header design of the site, which is comprised of photographs chosen by Susan for use on her site. I also designed a nice container on her front page that rotates San Diego travel photos with a nice fade-in-fade-out effect.

The development was challenging! While this is a site that is fully powered by WordPress - this is not a typical blog site. Her front page displays a welcome message to all her visitors, page links at the top of the site, as well as select pages on the left site of the front page. Beneath her welcome message, the reader finds select articles from her site that she has featured in categories such as “Featured Items”, “Family Fun” and “Coupons & Deals”.

Going further into the site, you’ll find a pretty snazzy page navigation system in play in the left sidebar of the site. When you click on one of her internal pages - you’ll find that the navigation menu in the left sidebar drops down to reveal all of the sub pages within that particular page, making navigation really smooth and easy for her readers.

I also implemented a nice polling plugin to allow her readers to interact with the site through the use of reader polls. She is able to change those polls whenever she feels the need to - and can disclose all the poll results on one page of her site.

I also gave her plenty of space for her advertisers and sponsors so she can easily monetize her site.

Susan was really pleased with the final launch of her site and design. I can see she’s been very busy filling that site up with great San Diego content. Best of luck with the new digs, Susan!

When Wiley Publishing and I released the first edition of Wordpress For Dummies last November, it was current through WordPress version 2.3. Shortly after WordPress released 2.5, the editing team at Wiley, and I, realized the need to publish a second edition of the book to cover the most recent, latest and greatest changes!

I am currently in the process of finishing up WordPress For Dummies, Second Edition and it will be available for purchase this Fall and will cover WordPress through version 2.6, definitely… however, if WordPress keeps on the same roll they are currently on with their development, it will probably cover through version 2.7.

For readers of my book who purchased the first edition of the book, I did publish a free bonus chapter that covers all the great updates that you find in your current version of WordPress. You can download the WordPress For Dummies Free Bonus Chapter here.

The sales on the first edition turned about to be amazing! That is a solid testament to the great platform that the folks at WordPress have put out there for the world to publish with. I’m always so thrilled to hear from readers of my book and know that it has helped them discover the WordPress platform and assisted them on their way to publishing their great content with the program.

You can read a few related posts and announcements that I made on my personal blog regarding the book:

• WordPress For Dummies: The Never Ending Story
• WordPress For Dummies: Bonus Chapter

And a few interviews and presentations I’ve recently done about the book and the work I do with the WordPress platform:

• Interviewd on the Blog Herald
• Interviewed on the WordPress PodCast
• The PRWeb Press Release: WordPress For Dummies
• My guest blog post on MyBlogit.net on WordPress Magazine Themes

I’m really excited about the Second Edition. You can expect updates to the original book to cover all the latest changes to the WordPress program since the book was first released. As a great bonus - and due to some fantastic reader feedback, Wiley Publishing and I have decided to include a great deal MORE information on WordPress theme development, design and CSS information. The first edition did have two chapters devoted to themes, template tags and creating a basic WordPress theme. This second edition, however, goes far more in-depth … taking you further into the process of designing a WordPress theme using the currently available template tags, CSS and some great tips and tricks you may not already know about. I can’t wait!

I’ll be done writing the book this summer - then after a quick run-through the editing mill at Wiley Publishing, it will be ready for purchase at your local bookstores, or online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. Thanks so much for reading and keep the feedback coming!!

Kim, from The Self Help Chick blog, approached us at E.Webscapes for a brand new, custom design for her WordPress blog. On her blog, she provides insight and stories of her personal experiences with the self-help industry, including videos, written content, reviews and photos. Kim is a reader of my WordPress For Dummies book and was really excited to get started with her first WordPress blog - - and I was happy to help. . .

With some help from my in-house Photoshop designer, Devin, who provided the basic framework and design for Kim’s great new blog, I recently completed and helped her launch the new design on her site. Using some carefully chosen artwork we helped her find on IStockPhoto.com, we provided her with a very cute, feminine and clean design for her new blog with a light color palette of her choosing.

Kim was REALLY thrilled with the design.. check out what she had to say when we were done:

Hi Lisa,
First of all, I just want to say what a pleasure it has been to work w/ewebscapes. I have your book and have been using it to get everything going - THANK YOU! I love the design and definitely hope to have more done with E.Webscapes!!

My experience with E.Webscapes was great and I will definitely use your company again in the future.
Have a great day-
Kim

I’m always thrilled to hear when readers have found my book to be helpful! Thank YOU, Kim and we definitely look forward to you coming back to E.Webscapes in the future for your blog design needs!