We are proud to announce that themightymuggs.com has launched. For those of you unfamiliar with Mighty Muggs check out the site. Here is a pic of one of my favorites:

Also we helped put together 89 Mighty Mugg iPhone/iPod touch wallpapers and they are free!

We have just launched a new Valentine’s Day campaign for aHa! Modern Living. We took a few products from the Valentine’s day idea list and shot them in a few different environments and then paired them with some fun phrases. The photography was done by Ryan Rossman. Valentine’s Day is ruled by cheap and semi-pointless gifts so we thought why not take the gardening niche by storm and take some of the market share that candy hearts own.

Check out the aHa! Modern Living to see where the new generation will be buying there gardening products and in turn replacing the mail order gardening catalog.

This is a long time coming but we have finally released a new theufcresults.com. We finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and went with a much readable design. So when you are checking fight results or your UFC 93 odds you will have a much better reading experience because in this version we enlarged the font size and made the leading larger. That was a major issue with the last version. The UFC is one the fastest growing MMA organizations right now and we are proud to be producing one the best sites on the internet for UFC News and Results.

We are working on some great things over at Lightpost Creative. We are hard at work with theufcresults.com currently. We are preparing for the upcoming UFC event and getting ready to post all the UFC 92 results the night of December 27th. We just updated the WordPress install to 2.7, and it is amazing what they have done with all the updates. The WordPress team continues to impress.

Now that we have upgraded we are going to be developing a new look that will present the content better and create designated places for revenue generating elements. When this site was first created it was not search engine optimized but we are going to be reworking our content layout so it will be more search engine friendly. When the changes happen we will do our best to document them and report on what worked and didn’t.

I am proud to announce that Lightpost Creative is fully operational now. I am now doing all my business through Lightpost and if you are interested any design services please contact the San Diego Web Design company Lightpost Creative. In addition to our services our blog is also a great web and design related resource. We have posts up currently on why having quality web design important and a css image sprite tutorial that gives a step by step demonstration showing how to attain multiple buttons with graphical rollovers using the same image. All the custom web design services that are availble from Yellowbird are still being offered at Lightpost Creative so you or someone you know is needing any design work don’t hesitate to contact us.

I had a very long day today trying to track down the exact plugin combination needed to truncate both the title and text for posts in Word Press. That may sound like a weird need but I am working on this site where I need very uniform post for layout purposes and since random users can post whatever they want the only way to control height of each post was to truncate both the title and the post. Here is the site I am working on (it is still in development so a lot of stuff is broken, DON’T JUDGE ME! ;P).The plugin combination that I used is one part WP limit post automatically and one part iMP Limiter. Limit post automatically is awesome. The options are easily set in the WordPress admin panel to meet pretty much any truncating option you might need.

The second part wasn’t so easy.If you search iMP Limiter in google you will find a ton of results, but every site links to: http://www.inmypad.com/2006/12/wordpress-plugins-imp-limiter/That is a big fat 404. It turns out that this developer lost their database and you can’t download the plugin anymore from his site. So I thought for sure there was another source. There wasn’t. After like three hours I stooped to searching for open plugins directories through google, I am not going to name anyone. I went down the list of results and emailed all the contact emails on the sites. Out of the forum postings, emails to my networks and random emails to open directories I was snooping, I finally got an email back, and this kind soul provided me with the plugin. So no one else has to do this I am going to offer this plugin here:iMP Limiter (right click, save link as) I was able to find some instructions on how to use the plugin at some other random site but what was most important in the plugin were a few lines of code which decide whether you truncate the title or the post text.

The first step to using this plugin is replacing either, <?php the_content(); ?> or <?php the_title(); ?> with one of the lines of code below depending on whether you want to truncate by character count or word count.<?php iMP_Limit_Char($max_char='', $more_text=''); ?> // Use this to limit characters with default parameters.<?php iMP_Limit_Word($max_word='', $more_text=''); ?> // Use this to limit words with default parameters.

After you have added the code above to your index.php you to look below where there are two functions, one if you want to truncate based on character count and one based on word count. My code is set up to truncate the title. If you want to set it for the content you just have to replace “title” with “content” in the spots where “title” is bold.

function iMP_Limit_Char($max_char = 10, $more_text = ‘…’, $more_link_text = ”, $limit_type = ‘title‘) {if ($limit_type == ‘title’) { $limiter = get_the_title(); }else { $limiter = get_the_content(); }$limiter = apply_filters('the_title‘, $limiter);$limiter = strip_tags(str_replace(’]]>’, ‘]]>’, $limiter));if (strlen($limiter) > $max_char) {echo substr($limiter, 0, $max_char+1);echo $more_text;if ($more_link_text != '') {echo ' <a href="';echo the_permalink();echo '">'.$more_link_text.'</a>';}} else {echo $limiter;}}function iMP_Limit_Word($max_word = 40, $more_text = ‘…’, $more_link_text = ”, $limit_type = ‘title‘) {if ($limit_type == ‘title’) { $limiter = get_the_title(); }else { $limiter = get_the_content(); }$limiter = apply_filters('the_title‘, $limiter);$limiter = strip_tags(str_replace(’]]>’, ‘]]>’, $limiter));$trim = explode(' ', $limiter);if(count($trim) > $max_word) {$l = $max_word;for ($i=0; $i<=$l ; $i++) $output .= $trim[$i] . ' ';echo $output;echo $more_text;if ($more_link_text != '') {echo ' <a href="';echo the_permalink();echo '">'.$more_link_text.'</a>';}} else {echo $limiter;}}

I hope that this helps. I am not a developer/programmer I just design, code XHTML/CSS and hack stuff people have already programmed. Email me if you want, I will help as much as I can.

I was working on babybag.com and was dealing with a php populated list of products. My first problem was a display issue with the right column in Internet Explorer 6 (weird, a display issue with IE6 ;p). IE 6 deals with margin and padding CSS rules strangely and often times breaks out of the set widths of the columns. The first step in fixing this issue was setting new margins on the <li>s that were being generated around the products. Here is one of the product pages so you can view the code if you want. Once those margins were adjusted and were spaced to look presentable in Firefox and IE I ran into another issue, this time in Firefox.

Some of the product titles were so long that there were too many lines of text and were preventing some of the other <li>s to not float correctly. The fix was very easy. All that was needed to correct the float issue was to set a specific height on the <li>s that wasn’t too tall and create weird spacing between the lists. Once the height was set all the elements floated correctly and the page viewed properly in both IE6 and Firefox.

Usually I avoid setting heights for the most part because I like my elements, especially with dynamic content, to be expandable. But since I knew that the titles on the products would most likely not push the <li> more than 200px tall I felt okay setting the height. If you have any questions feel free to send me an email, just use the contact form.

Or if you are the client…why you and your mom should get a blog.

I love blogs. Some people don’t. Some people even gag a little when they hear the word “Blogosphere”. It is kind of a lame word but it has really changed the landscape of the internet. Blogs are excellent on many levels. They function as SEO tools, sources of professional information, incredible down time killers, a soap box (for better and for worse) and a thought validator. Someone could come up with additional ideas but I feel that these reasons are more than sufficient for explaining the value of blog.

Blogs are great SEO tools because, if updated, they deliver fresh content. Google loves content that is constantly getting updated and blogs naturally produce that. It gives the spiders a reason to come back to the site and re-index your site. If you are writing quality posts you can also build links through other sites linking back to your site as reference, again, another thing search engines love. In addition to the links coming in it also gives you an opportunity to give links out. If you can get some reciprocal links then even better.

Blog posts are also awesome for submitting to social media sites too. Relevant posts can be submitted to respective social media sites and if they get popular then I hope your blog has a cache plugin installed from all the traffic you will receive, possible RSS subscribers, back links and if your lucky, viral traffic.

I know there can be doubt about the validity of someone seemingly posting random thoughts on the internet, but when you have sources like the Official Google Blog, Matt Mullenweg’s Blog (creator of WordPress) or Single Grain’s SEO blog you have some amazing, professional FREE information. These are only three of my favorite examples, there are thousands of sites instantly available on every topic. But please, as with any publication of any kind don’t believe what you read right away, cross check multiple sources to make sure there is a general consensus on the topic.

This one could sound arbitrary but it’s not! People are always faced with downtime…especially at work (if you are killing downtime right now then I recommend that you check out this video). The internet has to be the most abused work tool available. What would the sports junkies do without ESPN and their favorite sports blog? What would the avid green thumb do without their gardening blog giving the latest ten tips on better roses? With a blog you can capitalize on a niche by anticipating on people wanting to use your blog as a way to kill some down time.

The soap box is definitely a double edged sword. Blogs can act as an amazing way to keep your visitors updated on what is going on. The Digg blog is an excellent example of the moderators of a site interacting with it’s user base (here is a quick reminder of what happens when someone attempts to censor the internet). This is a very effective tool and a great way to reach the people connected to your site. The only problem is that everyone can stand on the soap box. This allows for parasitic content to seep its way through the internet like Perez Hilton’s celebrity blog. With the exception of a blogs like Perez Hilton’s the soap box idea is great and blogs make that ability easier than ever.

Blogs can act as thought validators. If you are writing about your niche and you have a thought on the topic that you feel is worthy of sharing you can. You put that idea out for everyone and see what happens. This is the hardest part of blogging, this is where the rejection happens. But it is through these moments of potential rejection that you can grow in your niche and become an expert in the topic. Being wrong and critiqued is where you can learn the most, where you can have your thoughts validated. Blogs are a great place for that process to happen. Of course, we are dealing with the internet, and believe it or not every person that graces this digital realm is civil, so brace yourself for that 12 year old moron who will leave that worthless comment on your blog calling you an “a**hole stupid head”. So now that you have read this call your mom that you want you her to get a blog.

Every day I am shocked to find people still paying for or designing sites that look like they have time warped out of 1995 into the present. I guess I can’t stop anyone from designing in this manner but I hope I can persuade people to not pay for an outdated product like this. There is a lot that goes into a design and there will be minutia that changes from client to client but I have noted below 5 ways that are universal for every design.

Color Scheme

This is where I usually start when designing from scratch or creating a solution for a client’s redesign. It is amazing what color can do positively and negatively. Every site should have a color scheme that matches the topic of the site. For example, if you are designing for a hospital you aren’t going to have a black and red color combo. You are going to have a lot of white and possibly a clinical blue or green to accompany. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to choose colors that compliment each other then let others come up with color schemes for you. There are two great online resources for choosing schemes at Colourlovers and Kuler.

Remove Clutter

I like to think of this like cleaning the house. When the dishes need to be done, your clothes are all over your floor and you have a week’s worth of beer bottles on the counter you start to feel bogged down and your house becomes less likable. This is the same with a web layout. If you have a cluttered site and people can’t figure out how to do anything or get to the information or service they want they will move on very swiftly to the next Google result. If you remove the clutter and make your content more concise and use space more effectively you will have a welcoming web environment and will please the site’s visitors.

Visual Metaphor

I firmly believe in a strong visual metaphor. The look of your site creates the first impression. The old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is derived from human nature. People are attracted to things that look nice and, more specifically on the internet, that are going to let them know that they have arrived on a site that has the information they are searching for. If you have a website that is about organic living then utilize imagery of natural looking farms, people and food. This may sound obvious but if you spend time on the internet you will see that not everyone gets visual metaphor.

Spice up Subheads

Subheads can often be like the middle child in a family (no offense to any middle children out there). They get that syndrome where they feel forgotten and over looked. Subheads are important. They break up a page so it doesn’t seem like the content runs on forever. There are graphical solutions or CSS solutions as simple as creating a dashed line bottom border under an H2. Regardless of what solution you choose don’t forget the details of your design because things like subheads will be left out and your site will suffer.

Build on Current Trends

Web design is art. Art is inspired. New trends don’t just emerge out of thin air into existence; they evolve ever time. Don’t be afraid to notice current trends and implement them into your own designs. This is especially important on the internet when dealing with clients. They see what someone else has on their site and say “I want that!” This is your opportunity to build on what others have done and make it your own. Quentin Tarantino has created much controversy in the film world because of how heavily he uses past trends, but there is no mistaking a Tarantino film with another director, he has built on what others have done and made it his own. This practice is necessary and without it design would get stale and stagnant, which is why some people’s websites look like they do.

Here is a super basic 5 step tutorial to help make average pictures look more beautiful and professional looking. This is a quick side by side so you can see what result we are going to get from these quick 5 steps.

Step 1:

This is the easiest step, unlock the background layer.

Step 2:

After you have unlocked the background layer, duplicate it twice.

Step 3:

Change the top layer to a Hard Light layer and then adjust the opacity to your liking.

Step 4:

Change the middle layer to a Soft Light layer and then adjust the opacity to your liking.

Step 5:

The final touch will be adding a Gaussian Blur to both the Hard Light layer and the Soft Light layer. Go to the Filter drop down at the top and then go to Blur -> Gaussian Blur. I do 4.5 px radius.

Completed! You have now taken a mediocre looking picture and given it a more beautiful, professional look. Until next time friends.