Time to Change the Channel…

lisa — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:23:28 +0000

… my YouTube channel, that is.

Well, I’m not exactly changing my YouTube channel (that just made for a catchy title), but I decided to put more focus into my abandoned channel, 2createawebsite.

You are probably already subscribed to my original YouTube channel, lisa3876. But a year ago, I registered the 2createawebsite username.

Umm… yeah. Don’t ask why I didn’t use that name originally on YouTube.

Apparently my marketing brain was in the OFF position when I started creating YouTube videos a year and a half ago. I guess branding was a foreign concept to me back then.

So I decided to use this channel for tutorials specifically related to coding, design, using various Web tools, etc.

Right now there are only four videos on this channel and my immediate goal is to add more. So if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you do so on YouTube or via the RSS feed.

In fact, to kick off the fact I will be posting more videos on that channel, I just created a tutorial that shows you how to create a very simple header in Photoshop. I’ve been getting a lot of requests for Photoshop tutorials so I will be posting more here in the near future.

Nothing is really changing with my original YouTube channel. I’ll continue to publish my “keepin’-it-real/ in-your-face” videos about marketing, making money online, etc. I just wanted to spend more time building up more “techy” tutorials for 2createawebsite.

Errr… maybe I should say “semi-techy” because I don’t really consider myself a technical person. But I know there are enough of you who want to learn to be as semi-technical as me.

Suggestions Please!

As always, I am open to suggestions for video ideas. If there’s something you’d like to learn and you have an idea for a video (related to programming, coding, design, etc.) please feel free to leave a comment here or on the channel page.

I’m also open to widening the scope. Tasks like installing forums, uploading scripts, using cpanel, etc. are all options for videos. Don’t be shy. Start posting those ideas and suggestions folks!

And I’ll see ya on YouTube!

My Biggest Design Mistake… Ever!

lisa — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:06:04 +0000

I’ve created at least 10 different sites over the past 10 years, but none of them have been developed better than my latest Site Build It! site, flat-stomach-exercises.com.

Now, I’m not talking about the the design and look and feel of the site. I’m talking about the way in which it was coded.

The entire design is controlled by CSS (cascading style sheets) and SSI (server side includes).

I know, I know… more intimidating acronyms that could confuse the heck out of you…

I’ll try to keep it simple so bear with me, OK?

CSS & Includes

CSS allows you to control large aspects of your site’s design and layout with one file. So if you want to change the color of your hyperlinks, you’d update your CSS file and your entire site will reflect the change.

Include files generally contain content that is repeated throughout the site (left nav, footer, etc.). So instead of updating every page when you want to change your left nav, you update the file that includes your left nav. And every page on your site references that one file.

With the combination of CSS and includes, I can update any aspect of my entire site (width of site, hyperlink colors, left navigation text, header image, font face and size, border colors, header styles, bullet styles, footer etc. by updating the corresponding files… instead of opening each page individually.

I’ve used CSS before with other sites but only for certain things like hyperlinks, font styles, colors, etc. But I’d never used it for an entire layout. Thanks to Dreamweaver I was able to really unleash the power of CSS completely without becoming inundated with confusing code.

You won’t believe this, but the entire coding layout of my Flat Stomach site is simply this…

(My header)

(My left nav)

(My right nav)

(My main content)

(My footer)

That’s the coding shell for my entire site. Then I use a style sheet (CSS) to define how the layout should look in each of those 4 ID sections (The “content” section is obviously different on every page so you wouldn’t include that one).

So any time I want to update any of those sections, I don’t open the content pages, I open the one CSS file and/or the includes.

Of course, if you view the source of my site, you’ll still see all the scary-looking code, but the browser combines and displays the code from the CSS and include files. (So it really looks like I’m a big time programmer, right?)

However, when I’m updating a particular section of my site, I only open the corresponding file (leftnav, footer, etc.).

So if you give one gift to yourself this year, learn CSS. Grab a copy of Dreamweaver CS3 and go to your local bookstore and get a reference book. I bought Dreamweaver CS3 For Dummies.

No really, I did. People do actually buy those “dummy” books.

You’ll be amazed at what CSS can do for your site. And when you realize you can update your entire site’s design and layout in about 20 minutes, you’ll understand why it’s worth it.

So What’s My Biggest Design Mistake?

Clearly it was not using CSS sooner. The thought of learning more coding overwhelmed me for so long that I kept putting it off. But it really helps to have a good Web editor to help you muddle through it.

Thanks to Dreamweaver, I didn’t have to really become more proficient as a programmer, I just had to become more proficient with using the program.

For some of you reading this, CSS is probably old news. Even though it wasn’t new to me either, I hadn’t unlocked its full potential.

But mark my words… I will never design a site without CSS again.

You shouldn’t either.

2 Create a Website Blog » design

Time to Change the Channel…

Suggestions Please!

My Biggest Design Mistake… Ever!

CSS & Includes

So What’s My Biggest Design Mistake?