The Triune Designs team took a little time off from designing and building websites to get together. Caribou Coffee was nice enough to host our little meeting… with the suggested purchase of drinks, of course.
This is a good article showing the results from a website user-attention study that was recently performed.
The information gathered from these results is nothing new, but the study is excellent at reinforcing the fact that the conventional web design layout is still the best.
Another good reminder for non-web designers and developers is to think like a newspaper editor. When adding content to your website, try to always keep the most important information above the fold… and to the right of the “second fold.” If the results above are true, your website will be happy you did.
Good post about the theoretical reasons for why Twitter works despite the fact that it probably should not. (Note: The author seems to like big, headsy words. Despite that, it is worth the read.)
David, over at Marketing Integrity, wrote a good post on the necessity of making your website helpful to potential church members (or clients/customers).
The only thing I would add to the aspect of being helpful on your business’/church’s website is being helpful for existing clients also.
This is where a blog, for example, comes in handy. Having fresh, helpful information on your website will provide an incentive to continue returning to your website. If customers or anyone else visits your website on a recurring basis then they have an increased chance of spreading the word about you and your site. That, in turn, increases your visibility.
Check out David’s post: Be Helpful
Here is a good article discussing the importance of your company’s blog.
Since there are so many social media options available, it is good to maintain some perspective. The post provides a good mental image (for Star Wars/Star Trek geeks like me) to help you maintain that perspective:
Your blog is your mothership. Don’t neglect it for lesser tools.”
http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/the-unconventional-guide-to-the-social-web/
The post also provides some useful thoughts on how to maintain your blog as well.
Here is the link: Your blog is your mothership.
In what I hope is my last post (for a while) concerning website security, this is a tale of two websites. I know I have been writing about your website’s security, but this has been a growing issue for the (self-hosted) WordPress community lately. My intention is to make sure our community and friends are properly educated about some simple solutions to better protect themselves.
Website 1: Updated WordPress Version
This website owner updated their version of WordPress. A minor error in the administrative settings allowed a hacker to register as a user. Because the software was up to date, the hacker got no farther than joining as a subscriber. No damage was done, no reinstalling of files was needed, and no major overhauls were warranted.
Website 2: WordPress Was Not Updated
The WordPress admin for the second website did not upgrade their WordPress platform. The same minor error mentioned above allowed the hacker to register as a user. However, since the software was out of date the hacker was then able to change themselves to an administrator. They then added other fake users, hid new admins they created, and changed various settings. They also changed the permalink structure to redirect users to potentially harmful websites. An afternoon’s worth of work was required to completely sanitize the website to make it safe once again.
The Importance
Weeks ago, the WordPress community found a hole in the security and the issue was promptly fixed. Once it was resolved, an update was distributed. In fact, the past two software updates included this security patch. People who had not updated their software recently were exposed to the worm and a lot of website owners have been affected. They felt the affect of not staying on top of their updates. The rest of the community was more protected from the attack.
If you want to read more about the importance of updating your WordPress software, Matt Mullenweg wrote a good article on the WordPress blog.
Please let me know if you have any questions concerning your current version of WordPress or if you are confused about updating your version of WordPress.
Stay safe out there!
A few days ago I wrote about our website having been potentially hacked by way of our WordPress blog. After performing a couple of preventative measures I decided to contact our web host, Media Temple to see if there was anything else we could do.
Jeff’s Advice To Me… And You
Jeff, who provided excellent customer service, and I spoke about our situation. To help you with your website, here is the rundown I received.
We Are Not Just About Security
I know a lot of the past few blog posts have been about personal, blog, and online security. Please know this is just a temporary subject given all of the things that have been happening around Triune Designs and the web in general. We should be resuming our “normal programming” quite soon.
