• Emails generate ideas for blog posts and videos
• I get to stay in touch with common problems people have with regards to my niche
• It reminds me that people are actually visiting my sites — always a good thing, right?

If you are familiar with my work, you know that I’ve had success with building websites through WordPress and Site Build It!.

I think they are both great platforms with their own set of pluses and minuses.

I also believe there is a gap that still needs to be filled between the world of website design and education about making money online for the average person.

What I’m about to write has been on my mind for some time. And your emails over the years definitely confirm the gap exists. I will explain what I mean below.

WordPress

WordPress is probably one of the most robust, flexible website building platforms on the planet, and the plugins make it that much sweeter. The more I use WordPress, the more I love it.

Not to mention, you can’t beat the selection of well-designed themes — both free and premium.

The downside to WordPress, however, is that it doesn’t come with an instruction manual for making money.  Many people just throw up a site, along with a few posts and expect the money to just roll in.

But the reality is, cheap, quick and easy doesn’t necessarily equate to online success.

Having said that, you can take it upon yourself to learn. There’s a ton of free information out here that will teach you how to build a successful, money-making site with WordPress, and many have done just that — all on their own.

Site Build It!

Site Build It! is now more than ten years old, and since its introduction, I have yet to find a more complete training manual for actually understanding…

1) The psychology of marketing summarized in laymen’s terms

2) The concept of PREselling, and

3) Converting a visitor into a lifelong follower/customer

Even if your SBI! site doesn’t make any money yet, you at least understand a lot more about what needs to happen before you start seeing success (assuming you actually absorb the Action Guide info).

I hear it all the time. Ex WordPress users who move over to SBI! often email me. Some of them may not be making any money yet, but they appreciate how thorough SBI! is — especially when it comes to understanding the process.

Many of you often praise me for what I’ve taught you, but I learned a lot about writing and Internet marketing from following Ken Evoy since day one. Even before SBI! launched, I was already a fan of his books.

But…

There’s one area where Site Build It! (in my humble opinion) has never been able to match WordPress and that is their templates and functionality (open source plugins, etc). In fact, the templates have been a big reason many people shy away from buying.

I often hear, You want me to pay $29/month for THAT? 

Now, if you’ve made any sort of money online, you know that the design plays a role, but it’s not the only determining factor in how much you will make.

Let it be known that I once used those “dated templates” and my SBI! site was making a couple of thousands of dollars per month in spite of the fact my design was — as many would say – stuck in the 90′s.

And if you want me to keep it realer than real, my self-made Dreamweaver design still isn’t all that great, but it does pretty well traffic-wise — even after a slap from Penguin in April. No complaints here.

But I digress. As far as the templates go, SiteSell has updated them and they look a little better from what I’ve seen thus far.

They still don’t hold a candle to WordPress themes in my opinion, but they are a step forward, for sure.

Yes, design is not the only factor of success, but it’s still important because first impressions mean a lot to people.

And let me just say that the first impressions of the original SBI! templates were NOT GOOD to say the least.

Right or wrong, many people do judge Site Build It! on their templates alone. They couldn’t care less about how great their entire system is if they can’t produce the design they want.

It’s human nature. People will judge a website building product by how the websites look, period.

My Wish

So this gap I’m referring to has to do with WordPress winning the design/functionality game and Site Build It! winning the education game.

It would be awesome if there was a way to marry the two — which is why I’d love to see SiteSell give their customers the option to install WordPress.

I can almost hear Ken Evoy sighing now.

But wait. Hang with me.

For years, SiteSell has pitted themselves against WordPress with articles like this and publishing statistics about how poorly WordPress sites perform on average.

I agree with some of Ken’s points about “full blogging” not being the best format for every kind of website, but here’s my rebuttal to that statement…

WordPress is not just for “full blogging.” You can actually use it to create a site that functions exactly like a static/traditional site — the very format SiteSell recommends.

So instead of working against WordPress, I believe there is an opportunity to marry SiteSell’s unparalleled guidance with WordPress’ functionality for those who want it.

And I should point out that you can still use WordPress with SBI!, but you have to sign up with another host and they don’t technically provide support for how to use WordPress with their Action Guide — which is why I just tell people it’s technically not compatible with SBI!.

An Example

My website NapturallyCurly.com is a WordPress site, but is actually setup more like a traditional site because I personally didn’t want that “full blogging” website that Ken often refers to.

When WordPress 3.0 came out in 2010 they added a menu feature that allows you to change the main navigation linking structure with ease.

This was a game-changer for the average non-techy, WordPress user. Prior to that, you had to actually know how to edit the PHP code to change your navigation, or purchase a premium theme that provides shortcuts through the admin panel.

Manipulating the organization of the pages/site structure is no longer the headache it once was, and I really learned a lot while building Napturally Curly in 2010. That’s when I started to change my tune about building sites with WordPress.

Here’s something else I’ve noticed…

Literally… at least once a month I get a comment from someone stating they like how the content is organized.

At first I found it odd that so many people kept saying that because it just makes sense to present the information in that manner.

But then I remembered that most people these days are used to WordPress and Blogger sites being organized by post date and category.

I used a lot of static pages, but still made use of dynamic content when appropriate — which is the beauty of WordPress.

I’m probably in the minority today, but I have always preferred a more traditional, static website layout, and maybe it’s because that’s how I learned to build websites before the blogging era came about in 2004.

Old habits are hard to break, I guess.

But the point is you can build any kind of site with WordPress.  It just doesn’t have the valuable training-wheel guidance that SiteSell provides to beginners.

What About SBI!’s Block Builder?

Let me also make it clear, I’m not by any means suggesting that SiteSell should get rid of their site builder and replace it with WordPress.  Could it stand some improvements?  Yes, but no need to eliminate it.

Believe it or not WordPress fans, some people actually hate WordPress and want nothing to do with it. (I know this because I also get many of those emails as well. LOL)  So a lot of their customers would probably prefer to keep using their builder.

Not to mention, SiteSell just invested all this time and energy upgrading the Block by Block Builder.  So that would be a slap in the face.

All I’m suggesting is that SiteSell give customers *the option* to install WordPress and incorporate advice into the Action Guide for how to setup a WordPress site to function with their “tiered model” for content organization.

Now their customers will have the best of both worlds — the preliminary education and the latest functionality (themes, plugins, etc). And those who prefer to use the site builder can do so if they wish.

Details, Details, Details

Of course, I’m not sure how feasible this is for SiteSell from a technical standpoint (For example, how would this work with some of their proprietary tools like Analyze It!?), or if it’s something they’d even consider.

In the end, this may not make any sense at all for their business.

I also know that security is a huge issue with the company, and they pride themselves on never having their servers hacked — something no other major host could boast about, I’m sure.

Allowing WordPress installs could open up a host of security issues for SiteSell, which may be one reason they may never do it.

It’s easy for an outsider like me to suggest this without knowing all the technical ramifications this could bring. But as a long-time fan of the company, I just thought I’d throw it out there based on the feedback I continue to receive.

To Sum it Up

So the SBI! vs. WordPress discussion continues to permeate on this blog, my inbox, and forum. As for my opinion, I will continue to say…

Nothing beats SiteSell’s all-in-one tools/training and collective support, but WordPress wins the functionality/design war by far.

And speaking of collective support, if you’re an SBI!er and you lost traffic during the Panda or Penguin update, make sure you stop by the SiteSell forums to read Ken’s latest suggestions and findings.

What a read!

Ken has gone above and beyond the call of duty by providing some data results and analysis (for customers only) from SBI! sites hit by Panda and Penguin.

It literally took him hours upon hours to collect the data and write up all that information, so at least take the time to read through it all. You’ll need a couple of hours and maybe even a cold drink. Nevertheless, it’s worth the read.

Even if you weren’t impacted, you should read it anyway.

It’s developments like this that make me proud to be affiliated with SiteSell — yup, 90′s templates and all!

Granted, Ken Evoy doesn’t know anything more about Google’s algorigthm and future plans than the next guy, but to see actual reports and characteristics of sites that were impacted and those that weren’t, along with suggestions for the future, was a really fantastic read.

Can you imagine GoDaddy or Hostgator providing that kind of lengthy support and analysis after a massive algorithm shake-up like this? Yeah right. It will never happen.

Now, in the wake of Penguin and all the other SEO changes, I do hope that SiteSell will continue to expand their teachings beyond SEO and focus more on other areas.

Too many people, whether they use WordPress or Site Build It!, are too reliant on SEO, and that just cannot be the focus anymore if you want your online business to survive.

With Panda, Penguin and now the budding Google Knowledge Graph, it’s becoming clear that Google has a different agenda now, and I’m not so sure how much content publishers are a part of the plan anymore.

Sorry for the brief tangent, but I felt that was important to mention with so many SBI! customers who read this blog.

What Do You Think?

Phew! This was a long post, so I hope you hung in there with me and my ramblings.  Am I completely off my rocker here or does anyone else agree with my suggestions?

I mentioned the person who left WordPress for SBI! above, but I also hear from SBI!ers who leave for WordPress.

If this describes you, would you have stayed if you could have switched to WordPress internally and learned how to apply SiteSell’s branded CTPM model (Content-Traffic-PRESell-Monetize) with WordPress?

I have a feeling this is going to open up a juicy discussion — or at least I hope so anyway.

Don’t let me down, guys and gals. Let the comments begin!

So after receiving many requests to do this video, I finally got a chance to upload the theme to see if the design converts nicely to a live platform.

After all, what’s the point of using Artisteer if the theme doesn’t work properly after uploading, right?

In the video below, you will see me create/modify a theme and upload it to WordPress from start to finish.

Here are the results — both the good and the bad…

Email subscribers can view the video here if it’s not showing in your message.

By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.

While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.

For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog.  It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc.  So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.

My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator.  That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.

Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.

This post is fairly long, but stay with me.  It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.

The Example

Let’s pretend you are building a website on how to plan a wedding — a topic where the information is best presented in a certain order instead of random posts sorted by category.

Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories.  Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.

So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.

This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.

Static Pages are the Answer

I’m sure you already know by now that creating Pages instead of Posts with WordPress is the way to display important content that you don’t want to get buried over time.

Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.

The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages.  So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.

Using WordPress Menus

The WordPress Menu feature is really powerful.  You can take your theme’s default menu and change it into a completely different menu with pages, categories, external sites or a combination of all three!

The problem is, most themes only have one menu.  Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.

Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development.  I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.

Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.

The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus.  I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs.  So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.

You can download my theme here and use it if you like.

The good news is that it’s a child theme.  So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.

Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.

How to Improve Your Blog’s Navigation

Whether you use my 3-menu theme or not, this section is very important.  I will show you how to make your blog navigation more intuitive and useful by using static Pages and the WordPress Menu feature.

You can apply these lessons to any theme, however if your theme only has one menu then it may be more challenging (especially if you want to highlight your post categories in your menu).

Let’s go back to the wedding planning example.

Instead of using your theme’s menu to highlight your post categories that send people to a list of your random posts sorted by date, we are going to create 4 static landing Pages that represent the 4 main topics of your blog.  These Pages will be linked from your main menu.

So in your WordPress Dashboard, go to Pages and then select Add New.   Create your landing pages.  For this example we will name them…

1) Budgeting

2) Hiring a Planner

3) The Ceremony

4) Invitations

The reason I am creating Pages instead of Categories is because we will be highlighting these 4 topics on your navigation menu.  And when your readers click on any of the 4 topics from the menu, they will be taken to a static landing page instead of a dynamic page that displays a random hodgepodge of all your recent posts (which is how most WordPress blogs are setup.)

Here is what your first landing Page may look like.

We are going to add these landing pages to the WordPress Menu because they contain important content that your visitors need to read.  The idea is we want these pages to remain visible on your blog no matter the date!  That’s the purpose of static pages.

Notice the two links below the opening paragraph on the Budgeting landing page.  These are links to 2 more WordPress Pages that are “children” of the Budgeting Page.

When you create a new Page in WordPress, you are given the option (in Edit mode) of choosing a Parent for that page.  So I created two more Pages called What You Should Know and Best Ways to Save and assigned the Budgeting Page as their Parent.  Then I linked them from the Budgeting landing page.

Note:  You don’t have to assign a Parent to these pages, but it’s a good habit to get into because some themes (Thesis) will automatically add your child pages as drop-down options in menus.

Now I’m going to show you how to highlight these important static pages on your theme’s navigation menu.

Using The WordPress Menu

When you go to the WordPress Menu section (under Appearance), it will automatically tell you how many menus are available for your theme.  As I already mentioned, my child theme will give you three menus.  See below…

So we’re going to create a brand new menu on the very top of the blog (you can call it whatever you want.)  This menu is going to consist of the 4 landing pages we just created (Budgeting, Hiring a Planner, The Ceremony, Invitations) and any child pages you created.

The child pages will show up as drop-down options underneath the main topic as illustrated below…

Once you’ve created your Pages, setting up this kind of menu is super easy.  Just go to Menu under the Appearance tab in WordPress and click the + sign to create a new menu.

Name the menu whatever you’d like.  I named mine “Main Menu” since it’s at the top of the blog and links to my most important topics.

Now you’re going to add your 4 new landing Pages (and their children) to the menu by scrolling down to the Pages section and selecting all the appropriate pages.   See screenshot below where I’ve selected the parent Page “Budgeting” and all its children.

Now we want to make sure the child pages show up as drop-down options when you hover over Budgeting.  You do that by simply dragging all the child Pages over to the right so they are indented.  See screenshot below…

Repeat this for all the Pages and children you want to add to this menu. Save your menu when you are done.

Now when you refresh your blog you should see your main topics in the new menu.   When you click the main topic (Budgeting, for example) it should go to the static landing Page you created.

When you hover over each topic, it should also display the child pages as drop-down options.

What About My Posts and Categories?

Don’t worry.  I’m not suggesting you abandon creating Posts and using categories.  Obviously you still want to keep creating and highlighting new content.

I’m just trying to help you improve your blog’s navigation so your readers can find your most important (static) content.  When you have a tutorial/how-to site there is certain content that should always be accessible. That’s why you want to make good use of Pages and highlight them from your menu(s).

There are a few ways to highlight your recent posts and categories on your menu:

1) Simply add the Categories to your menu like you did the Pages above

2) Use my Twenty Eleven child theme and reserve one of the extra menus for your Categories

3) Create a new Post category called “News” or “Updates” and make all your existing Post categories children of this new category.

Add the “News” category to one of your menus and the sub categories as drop-downs underneath.  Now your readers can find your most recent posts and view by category if they wish.

Now you’ve got the best of both worlds with WordPress.  You can feature your most important and potentially highest-converting static content while continuing to highlight your recent work (latest posts).

Benefits of Implementation

- Static pages make your blog easier to reference and they improve your visitor’s overall user experience.

- When your navigation is logical, your readers can find what they need and they are more likely to return to reference your content.  They will also stay longer and view more pages (improves your bounce rate).

- When people return, they are much more likely to buy products you recommend and sell, which will increase your blog’s revenue.

- This can also be beneficial for search engine optimization because your content is organized logically and it gives the engines a better idea for what your site is about.  Having more static pages can potentially boost your search engine traffic in the long-run.

What About Other Themes?

I chose this theme because it’s the WordPress 3.0 default and everyone has easy access to it.  Unless you’ve removed it, you should still have it installed.  Also, it would be quite difficult to explain this for every theme since the code is drastically different.

This is a great example of when premium themes like Thesis come in handy.  You can actually create drop-downs in your navigation menu without having to edit the WordPress Menu.  It’s part of the Thesis Options panel. So Chris Pearson was actually ahead of the game when he created Thesis.

The Twenty Eleven theme also has extremely clean code and is a good theme to use if you’re interested in learning more about theme development and modification.  You can really do a lot with this theme if you spend time learning about the inner workings (hooks) of WordPress.

——————————

I really hope you found this post useful.  I know it was lengthy, but I want you to understand how important site usability really is.  If you need a theme with more menu support, be sure to download my Twenty Eleven child theme.

In my WP Starter Guide I go into greater detail about this and even show you how this tip has impacted the traffic on my hair blog.

You guys know how I roll. I will make this as painless and easy for you to implement as possible — at least that’s my goal anyway. The code is provided below so all you need to do is copy and paste.

I’ve been taking some time to learn more about CSS3, which allows you to do more styling on your site with minimal code and images.

Cleaner code and fewer images ultimately means faster loading pages and it’s better for SEO (less code for the engines to wade through.)

I’ve been slowly implementing a few CSS3 tricks here and there so I developed this mini tutorial on how to take advantage of the border, box and shadow properties. Because not all browsers support CSS3, I haven’t gone too crazy with implementation just yet.

The CSS Border/Box Properties

In this post I’m going to focus on adding rounded corners, image borders and shadows.  Before CSS3, creating rounded corners and shadows was a royal pain.  You had to use an image and position them using coordinates.  But with CSS3, it’s a breeze!

1) Creating Rounded Corners

The border-radius attribute creates rounded corners around an element. This code works in IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari.

The first thing you need to do is paste the following CSS code into your style.css file. Feel free to adjust the color, width, padding, etc.

div.rounded
{
padding:10px 35px;
background:#eed9a8;
border:2px solid #000000;
border-radius:20px;
-moz-border-radius:20px; /* For Firefox 3.6 and earlier */
width:250px;
}


Now in your post you simply use…

<div class=”rounded”>This text will be surrounded by an object with rounded corners</div>

And this is the result…

2) Creating a Border With an Image

CSS3 allows you to use an image as a border. This does not work in IE — shocking, I know.

So let’s say you want to turn the following image into a border…

This is a simple image I created in seconds using Photoshop’s Custom Shape Tool. To turn this into a tiled border, add the following code to your style.css file…

div.border
{
border-width:15px;
width:225px;
padding:15px 20px;
}


#tiled
{
-moz-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 round; /* Firefox */
-webkit-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 round; /* Safari and Chrome */
-o-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 round; /* Opera */
border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 round;
}


Don’t forget to upload your own image and change the name and path of the image named redBox.gif or this won’t work.

Now, in your page, add the following code…

<div class=”border” id=”tiled”>This image is tiled/repeated around the text</div>

And this is the result…

You can also stretch the image border with the following CSS code…

div.border
{
border-width:15px;
width:225px;
padding:15px 20px;
}


#stretched
{
-moz-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 stretch; /* Firefox */
-webkit-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 stretch; /* Safari and Chrome */
-o-border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 stretch; /* Opera */
border-image:url(redBox.gif) 25 25 stretch;
}


Now paste the following code into your actual page…

<div class=”border” id=”stretched”>This image has been stretched so it takes on a slightly different shape</div>

And the result is this…

3) Creating a Box Shadow Effect

This is a great trick to use if you want to create a shadow box effect around your text, image, etc. You can also use this to add a shadow behind your site’s container. This works in all later versions of IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

Here’s the CSS code…

div.shadow
{
width:400px;
height:25px;
background-color:#ddd;
-moz-box-shadow: 8px 8px 5px #999; /* Firefox 3.6 and earlier */
-webkit-box-shadow: 8px 8px 5px #999; /* Safari */
box-shadow: 8px 8px 5px #999;
}

Now paste the following into your page…

<div class=”shadow” id=”stretched”>This box will have a shadow behind it</div>

And it will look like this…

You’ve just created an image-free shadow box! Again, feel free to adjust colors, shadow sizes, etc. by editing the CSS code.

4) Creating a Text Shadow

I’m not a huge fan of this CSS3 trick because I think text drop-down shadows can make your site look it’s straight out of 1996.

The key is to make it very subtle by using a shadow color that’s very close to the text color and minimize the shadow spacing.

Text shadows do not work in IE. Again, very shocking. *sarcasm*

Paste the following code into your style.css file…

h1.shadow
{
text-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #cc7777;
color: #d22929;
}

To call up the shadow, simply paste…

<h1 class=”shadow”>This text will have a shadow</h1>

And it will give you this…

This text will have a shadow

Notice the shadow is a lighter pink color. Of course, you can change the color of the text and shadow by updating the CSS.

Now you can successfully pimp out your site with CSS3! Don’t you feel current and hip?

And that’s really not a huge surprise since most people opt to create blogs now.  They’re quick, easy, dynamic, they foster discussion and you can find hundreds of well-designed themes for free!

I really don’t want to get into a discussion about which is better (blog or static site) because I think it’s all relative.  Obviously blogs are current.  They provide more instant functionality and they’re easier to create, but it doesn’t mean they’re best when it comes to learning the fundamentals of design.

However, when people say blogs are better than static websites, they are usually referring to the ease, functionality and design options — not necessarily financial success and learning/understanding how to design a website.

I think building static websites prior to having a blog is what helped make editing my blog less intimidating.  Since most people start off with blogs today, they aren’t necessarily forced to learn much about the code.

That’s fine if you don’t plan to update your design in a major way, or you find the perfect theme. But it can become a problem if you want to start moving things around, re-designing and positioning elements like AdSense units, banners, etc.

Of course that doesn’t mean all bloggers never become proficient in CSS.  I’m sure many of you reading this now learned a lot about HTML and CSS because of your blog and are quite comfortable changing things up.

But I personally believe it’s easier to make sense of things when you start with a static website.  The code is often cleaner and you can edit, test and preview your design right from your computer without setting up a server like you would for WordPress.

But I digress…

In spite of what people say about static websites, I know a big part of my audience still uses them and I haven’t forgotten about you!

I see your comments, read your e-mails and I get your frustrations when it comes to design. So I am putting the finishing touches on a 3-column CSS template that I will be selling very soon, and I promise you it will be the best teaching template you’ve ever seen.

You may remember a few of the free templates I’ve offered from my site and on YouTube over the years.  They are pretty basic and fine for getting started, but they don’t hold a candle to the one I have created from scratch.

Template Features

• Very clean HTML & CSS code
• Loads fast
• Compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and even older versions of IE!
• W3C Validated
• Customizable horizontal CSS navigation menus with hover effects
• SEO Optimized (Content is ABOVE the navigation in the source code unlike most 2 or 3 column CSS templates.)
• Over 60 original, graphical backgrounds to choose from
• Over 40 original, custom headers (some with premium, high-res photos)
• Instructional Video
• Embedded instructions in the stylesheet and template to help modify the design
• Guidance with positioning banners, social networking icons and other elements in the header
• Can be configured to work with Site Build It!
• Since it’s static, you can edit, test and preview right from your computer before going live

And because there are so many different headers and backgrounds to choose from, you can create hundreds of different designs just from this one template.  (All backgrounds and header designs were created by me in Photoshop, so you’ll have full rights to use them commercially.)

I’ve actually had fun developing the headers and backgrounds and I think those alone will be worth the price of the template.  There will even be photos of people with transparent backgrounds that you can position inside the header if you wish.

If you’ve always wanted to have more control over the design of your site, this is going to be the template for you!  And if you have a blog, it will help you understand how to customize that as well — especially when it comes to positioning elements in your header like AdSense banners, etc.  Even though blogs are dynamic, they still use CSS to govern the design.

So why am I telling you all this before launch?  Well, my newsletter subscribers will be getting the template for a deep, discount for a limited time.  So make sure you are on my list!

Details will follow soon.

If you’re reading this from a reader or e-mail, head on over to my blog to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss that discount!

Update August, 2011: You can get my HTML / CSS web templates here.

Want your site to be considered for a case study? Learn how!

If you use Blogger, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or have a static website and need help designing or re-designing your site from scratch, this is the post for you!

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to use, but I was even more impressed by the numerous design options offered.  Usually builders/design tools have limited design choices, but Artisteer has more than average.

I also love that it can be used on so many platforms.  Many design tools are for static websites only or dynamic websites only.  Artisteer is for static and dynamic sites, and the code is exported with the appropriate file/folder structure.

In other words, your WordPress site will be exported just like a WordPress theme with all your WordPress files (header.php, footer.php, stylesheet, etc.)  So all you have to do is upload the folder to your themes folder.

Other than the bloated CSS code it creates, it’s a pretty solid tool.  And like with any design tool, the more comfortable you are with HTML and CSS, the more you’ll be able to customize your design after using Artisteer to build your initial design.

See Artisteer in action below…

Download a free trial of Artisteer here.  Let me know how you like it!

Is your first reaction, “Of course not!”?  Well, even if you think you’re sure about this, I recommend you read on …

Webmasters use images all the time to create logos, help illustrate the point of a subject, break up text on a page or just to make a website more visually appealing.

But is use of these images legal? Maybe, maybe not.

What???

Here’s the deal: If you use images obtained from the internet to create your logo or for use on your website, you could be guilty of copyright infringement and not even realize it.

Copyright infringement is illegal and can get you in a huge tub of hot water. While you might be “free” to use these images, there are still rules to be followed to ensure you don’t infringe on copyrights.

There’s a common misconception that if an image is out on the web it’s “up for grabs.” Even if you purchase a “stock” image, it’s crucial that you adhere to an end-user license agreement.

Internet Images

I love how Google has its “Images” menu item. Whenever I want to see a picture of just about anything, I use Google Images to find what I’m looking for.

But while this may seem obvious to some, believe it or not too many webmasters will grab these images for their own use and republish them without permission. This is copyright infringement whether intentional or not.

If there’s an image you want to republish, you MUST get express permission from the copyright owner before you can legally use it.

What Are Copyright Free Images?

The term “copyright free images” is overused and leads people into believing they can take these images and then call them their own. The only way you can stake claim to an image is if you create it yourself and it is truly an original.

If you Google “copyright free images” 930 million results are found. The truth is the only images that can really be deemed copyright free are those that are in the public domain because public domain works have no copyright.

And even though you are free to use an image from the public domain, it will always remain in the public domain, copyright cannot be restored, and it will never actually be yours.

How About Royalty Free Images?

First of all, understand that royalty-free does not mean copyright-free. If you use a royalty-free image, the creator of that image remains the copyright holder. And royalty-free doesn’t necessarily mean free of charge.

Creators of images will often allow others to use their works for various purposes. For example, I used to publish a travel magazine and would sometimes publish pictures taken by professional photographers.

I would be charged a royalty fee based on my planned use of the photo. If I wanted to use the photo again in a different issue of the magazine, I’d have to pay the photographer another, separate royalty fee.

So what does “royalty-free” mean? It means you are free to use an image as many times you want without having to pay a separate fee for each use. Usually you will pay a one-time flat fee and can use the image as many times as you wish, as long as you adhere to the license agreement attached to it.

The terms of service and license agreement will spell out exactly how you are permitted to use an image. In shutterstock.com’s license agreement you can use their images on websites up to 800×600 pixels without copyright notice or credit, but if you want to use an image on t-shirts for resale, you are required to have an “enhanced” license and must include a copyright notice and credit the creator.

In other words, they are giving you permission as long as you abide by their rules.

What About Free Graphics?

There are tons of free graphics available in software and on the web. A good example is Microsoft’s free clip art. Anyone can use these images for whatever they want, right?

WRONG.  While Microsoft isn’t charging you a fee, there are still terms of use with very specific restrictions on the use of these images.

Pretty much every free graphics resource will have some restriction on the use of their images. Some will require credit to the creator or inclusion of a copyright notice. Some even have watermarks embedded already so the copyright will always be included. Some will say you can use images for this but not that.

These Images Are Not Unique

Copyright-free, royalty-free and free graphics can be used by anyone. Even if you’ve paid for the use of an image, that doesn’t take it “off the shelf” – tomorrow someone else can purchase it for their own use as well.

So if want an image for something like a logo and you want your logo to be one-of-a-kind, it’s a bad idea to use anything other than an original creation. This is especially true if you intend to trademark your logo!

The only way to have truly unique and original images is to create them yourself or hire someone else to create them for you. But if you hire someone else, realize that artist will retain copyright of the creation unless you have a copyright assignment agreement.

What Can Happen if You Violate Copyrights

Copyright infringement is serious. If you’re caught, at the very least you will be forced to remove the infringing images from publication.

If legal action is taken, you can be subject to a civil lawsuit in the copyright owner’s jurisdiction and actual and statutory damages that could be financially devastating.

And with certain deliberate violations, you could be subject to criminal penalties carrying massive fines and long prison terms.

The Bottom Line

Plain and simple, don’t take any chances. Don’t use images you have no rights to without express permission, and read end-user license agreements carefully so you understand permissible use.

Lisa’s Note: I use Photos.com for all my images. Yes, it’s expensive but I have the piece of mind that I have rights to use my images commercially.

Be careful of the sites that say they are “free for commercial use” because often times every image source has not been verified.  Photos.com scans and verifies every single image to ensure they are clear for use.

It’s the little square that appears next to your tweets, FaceBook posts, etc.  It’s your identification for social media online.

Someone recently asked me why I never change mine.

I simply replied…

It’s part of my brand.

For the most part, I use the same icon for 2 Create a Website everywhere.  (There are a few exceptions.)

It’s recognizable and my followers have become familiar with it.  I also prefer to use a photo because I believe it is more personal.  But I certainly understand why you may choose a logo instead (brand awareness).

Changing Faces

I follow people on Twitter who change their avatars multiple times per month, and there have been many times I didn’t realize who they were until many tweets later.

This happened with someone I follow very closely.  I unintentionally bypassed their tweets because I didn’t recognize the avatar.

I know what you’re thinking…  Content sells, not avatars.  So why does it matter what picture is displayed?

Here’s the deal.  Most people follow hundreds (or even thousands) of people these days, and can’t effectively read every update.  But many have their favorites.

No matter how many people they follow, they will always take time to read the updates from their favorite people.  So as they are scanning, they tend to zero in on these people, and a recognizable avatar assists with that process.

Of course, content is the most important thing, but don’t underestimate the importance of that little square.

A familiar picture helps people quickly recognize you as they scan through the numerous updates of people they subscribe to/follow.  You don’t want to get skipped by your loyal followers because you change your picture every other day.

If you’re using social media for personal reasons, then these rules don’t necessarily apply.  In fact, switching up your photo is often a means of self expression.  But for business, I think it’s important to consider familiarity, brand awareness and consistency.

I’m not saying never switch your avatar.  A change in scenery is nice every now and then — especially if you’re just changing to another photo where people can still recognize you.

However, random avatar changes (from cars to dogs to sunglasses, etc.) every week might be a bit much.  Just remember the role that small icon plays when it comes to recognition and branding.

What do you think?  Do you change your avatars often?  Why or why not?  Let’s talk!

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