Recently, while developing a site, I ran into a need for the ability to select 4 random  images from a folder and display them in a div container. I searched around and found several scripts that would pull single random images (I’ve used this simple script from Matt Mullenweg’s site several times, for example) but nothing that would randomize multiple images. As I often do when I run into a brick wall, I tweeted about my problem and received a response from James Paden of Xemion.com* offering to write the script for me for free!  The kindness and generosity of people I have met through blogging and Twitter continually amazes me.

He based the multi-image script on this single random image script, and it works great! Since I had such a hard time finding one I thought (with James’ permission) that I would make it available here. It’s set up to call 4 images, but shouldn’t be too hard to tweak for the number you need.

Click here for a demo.

Click here to get the code and instructions.

Thanks again to James for helping me out!

*Xemion.com is a great resource for small business owners and managers to both find web designers and learn how to best hire and work with design firms.

Following are the questions I am most commonly asked via email and I thought it might be helpful to have the answers all in one place rather than re-typing them all the time.

Question: “I downloaded your theme and I want to make some changes to the design, is that okay?”

Answer: Absolutely! I think half the fun of having a blog is being about to modify your theme and make it your own.  It would be great if you’d leave the link back to my site in the footer, but that’s not a requirement either. Have at it! Hack up the theme! Make it your own.

Question: Maybe you’ve read my article, The easy way to learn CSS and customize your blog theme and you want to try making changes to your blog only to hit the issue that one user of my themes recently e-mailed about: “I’m locked out of the edit process with a message saying ‘if this file were writable you could edit it’- help!”

Answer: This happens because the “permissions” need to be changed through your FTP client to make your theme files writeable.  I always point people to this post that gives instructions on how to do a CHMOD (the fancy, techie term for this) in several commonly used FTP clients.

Question: “I want to edit the About section but I can’t figure out where to do that.”

Answer: You can edit the theme files in the Editor under Appearance in the WordPress admin menu. Look for r_sidebar.php to edit the About section in the Bluebird theme, for example. However, I really recommend that you instead use Widgets to manage your sidebar. When you put widgets in the sidebar sections it overrides what I’ve put there by default in the theme.

Question: “Did you know Twitter stole your Bluebird to use in their logo?”

Answer: Yes. Yes I did. Those jerks!  ………just kidding. The bluebird is a stock illustration for which I paid a lot of money to be able to use it in a theme. I happened to buy the same one that Twitter did. Why would the application that is the most popular thing since sliced bread use a stock illustration for their brand image?  Hmmm… good one. I don’t know- see if it’s in their FAQ.

Question: “Why do you have comments turned off on all your posts?”

Answer: I have found that after a certain point in the life of a post, the overwhelming majority of comments left are from those who are purely looking to get a “followed link” from my site. They found me listed on some “get a followed link from a high PR site” post or forum somewhere and stop by, barely read a post, and leave a lame comment with keywords in the name field and leave, never to be seen again. Moderating all those comments got really old, so once I realized I was getting no comments of any value after a certain point, I turned them off.

Question: “You’re supposed to be a “do follow” blog. I can see with my special Firefox plugin thingie that not all the links in your comments are followed though – you hypocrite!!!”

Answer: I choose whom I will and will not follow based on several factors. A wise blog owner gives link love to their readers who comment, and not the drive-by commenters who will never be seen again. Also, obsessing about “do follow blogs” is so last year. Try obsessing about creating great content instead.

As always, thank you for visiting, reading, subscribing, making comments, asking questions and using my themes. I appreciate it more than you know.

Need to learn about marketing? You need this book.

If you’re a small business owner, one of the most important things you can do is to educate yourself about how to market your business. You’ve heard “you have to spend money to make money” right? How do you spend that money? Where do you put those marketing dollars so they’ll have the most impact? I have seen companies dump thousands of dollars into marketing efforts that produced no results and they have no idea why or what to do next. That’s why I’m recommending the Integral Marketing System by Corte Swearingen. This is a HUGE 339 page ebook that is an outstanding resource for anyone who wants to learn how to effectively market their business.  For $57 you get the book, including 16 marketing modules plus the lifetime eBook updates, and a FREE 30-minute consulting call with Corte.

In the book you’ll learn a systematic approach to attracting new customers, selling more to existing ones, and increasing your customer retention – all with easy-to-apply techniques that you can put to use immediately. Click here to visit SmallBiz Marketing Services website and learn more about the content of the book. You’ll also want to click on the homepage link at the top right as there are also many helpful articles about direct mail, database marketing and strategy to check out.

One of the reasons I’m recommending the book is that I know Corte personally. He’s one of the best people I worked with during my career in direct marketing. Besides being a marketing guru, he’s extremely helpful and just an all-around nice guy.

In the interest of full disclosure… the links above are affiliate links, but it’s sort of an afterthought. I’d be writing this post whether he had an affiliate program or not. If you’d like to sign up for the affiliate program, here’s the info.

Rotating Headers

Simple code solution:
Put the below bit of code where in the header file where the header image is called. Then put your header images in your themes images folder and be sure they’re named header1, header2, header3, etc… Obviously you’ll need to change the file extension if you’re not using jpgs.

<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/header_<?php echo(rand(1,3)); ?>.jpg" width="940" height="190" alt="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> random header image" title="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?> header" />

Plugin solution:
Image Rotator Plugin – this one has many more features than just the simple code above. With this plugin, the image rotates on a timed schedule vs. rotating each time the page reloads.

Rotating Quotes

Simple code solution:
Put the below bit of code where you’d like your rotating quotes to be, changing out the quotes to real ones of course. If you add in extra rows, be sure the comma is after the last one only. If your quote has an apostrophe, you’ll need to use the following format: didn\’t.

$myRandomQuotes=array(
'Quote number one here.',
'Quote number two here.',
'Quote number three here.',
);
echo $myRandomQuotes[rand(0,sizeof($myRandomQuotes)-1)];
?>

Plugin solution:
Quotes Collection- this plugin was recommended to me by my friend and fellow designer, Tracey Grady, and it has some great features including Ajax refresh, so that the quotes can rotate with or without a page reload.

Rotating Sidebar Images

Simple code solution:
There is an easy image rotator script on Matt Mullenweg’s site. Looks very simple to use.

Plugin solution:
NextGEN Gallery – I have not used this plugin but it looks awesome. It will put random images, rotating images, or even a slideshow wherever you like on your site. It is widgetized, can be styled via CSS and you can even upload a zip file of images to use with the plugin. Can’t wait to try this one.

Random Posts

If your blog has been around a while, you may feel that some of your best content has sort of gotten buried in the past. Using a random posts plugin is a great way to resurrect some of those great posts. There are multiple random posts plugins to choose from in the WordPress plugin directory.

Have you used any plugins for these purposes that you’d recommend?

Get it in writing

If you are contracting for any service, online or otherwise, your best protection is to get exactly what is being promised to you in writing. What specifically are they going to do for you?  What time frame will they complete it in? How much will it cost and will you be paying for part of the service up front? How long do you have to work the kinks out?  If you have a WordPress theme designed, for example, most designers will set a given time frame after project completion for problems with the theme to be fixed at no charge.

Also, often as part of the quote or contract process, the service provider should give you their address and phone number. Check the address- is it real?  How would you contact them if they stopped responding to your emails? If you needed to sue them for breach of contract, would you even be able to find them?

Check their references

When a company hires an employee, they invariably request and check references. In the same way, you are hiring someone to work for you and unless someone has referred them to you, you have no idea what they’re like to work with and if they’ll deliver on their promises.  Any reputable designer, developer, or other online service provider will be happy to give you the contact information for several past customers.  This is extremely important, and yet almost no one asks me for references.

Educate yourself

It can be difficult for those who are less technical to work in this online environment. Often, bloggers are great writers, but get a sort of “deer in the headlights” look when it comes to the more technical aspects of a blogging platform or web site, which is totally understandable. These people are particularly easy for these disreputable serivce providers to prey upon. It’s like a woman who doesn’t know much about cars going to Jiffy Lube to get an oil change and they tell her she needs a new air filter and some hose replaced. How is she to know if they’re telling the truth or just trying to take her money? If you know virtually nothing about the service you’re purchasing you are particularly vulnerable.  Read WordPress For Dummies, ask a friend who is more knowledgeable than you to give some input, and learn all you can about the service you’re paying for so you’ll know when something is “off”.

Another part of educating yourself is to get several quotes for the service. Find several designers you like, who are accepting new clients, and ask each for a quote. A standard number of quotes is usually 3-4 to get a good feel for what a good price is for the service you’re contracting for.  Remember though, you often get what you pay for. The best people are in high demand – remember that stuff you learned about supply and demand in high school?

Has this happened to you?

Have you ever been screwed by an online service provider? If so, what would you do differently if you got a “do over”?

After entering your search terms, and the choice of whether you want to search for “Everyday” images (the cheap kind) or “Professional” images (not so cheap), you’re presented with a mosaic of matches to your query, with the most relevant in the center:

You can zoom in and out on your mosaic, and drag the screen around to see more images.  There are advanced search features that allow you to filter your results by orientation, price and resolution and sort by price and size.  You can also build and save lightboxes.

My first love in stock images is iStockPhoto, but the interface on BrightQube is so awesome, and makes scanning for just the right image so quick and easy, that I will definitely be a regular customer.

(this is not a paid review or an affiliate thing, in case anyone was wondering…)

Featured Content Gallery

This plugin is amazing. It’s so easy to implement and really makes a big difference in a static site.  Check out this site or this one to see it in action.  To use, you simply install the plugin, and then set your preferences in the admin panel, add the bit of code to your theme files, and start posting in your featured category including the use of the custom field for the featured image.  Just an FYI, for you techie types, I have found that this plugin does not work on a site that is also using “Moo Tools” javascripts. Click here to visit download page.

Breadcrumb Navigation XT

Another simple one to implement and a must if you have a site of any depth. It ads “breadcrumb” links to make it easy for the user to navigate, especially as they get deep into your content.  Click here to visit download page.

Multi-page Toolkit

If you have content that is quite lengthy, this is a perfect plugin to help your users wade through it.  There are many options for customizing it in the admin panel, and you can style the display by adding some plugin specific CSS to your theme’s stylesheet. Check out this post for an good example, and click here for the download page.

Related Entries

This plugin gives your readers suggestions at the end of each post for other posts that may interest them, and is a great way to increase the time they stay on your site. You can even include exerpts if you like! Click here to visit the download page.

CForms

This is simply the best contact form plugin I have ever come across.  It allows for multiple forms, custom form styling and it’s very easy to insert your forms into posts, pages or your sidebar.  Download page is here.

And, while I’m in plugin mode, here are some plugins I couldn’t live without:

Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu

Share This

WordPress Automatic Upgrade

BackUpWordPress (if you don’t have a plugin installed that backs up your site, drop everything you’re doing and install one now)

Concept

As I begin the design process, I look through my inspiration folder in my bookmarks, and through inspiration sites like Best Web Gallery. I particularly liked that site because it includes a small site preview when you mouse over the thumbnail. To get color inspiration, I use ColourLovers and ColorSchemer. As I page through the color schemes others have created, I make screen prints of those that I like and paste them into Photoshop and then narrow down to one that suits the site the best. Once I have design and color inspiration I go away from the computer and close my eyes. That might sound a bit strange, but I find that I must have some time to visualize the site before I do any sketching.

Sketch & Mockup

Once I get a visual idea in my head for the site, I then either sketch the layout on paper or begin sketching in Photoshop. I wanted to move to a grid layout so I downloaded the outstanding 960 grid system, which includes Photoshop grid templates that I used to lay out the site.

Once I had the body of the site complete, I had a really hard time deciding on the background. I had a great time using the pattern maker at Colour Lovers, but never ended up with something that looked good. So, inspired by sites like N Design Studio, I used a set of brushes found at Brusheezy. Though the background is wide, It was worth it to design for the wide screen since over 70% of you are using something wider than 1024px.

Code

I fully intended to use the code that came with the 960 grid, but as I got into it, being anxious to make my design a reality, I gave up too quickly trying to figure it out and instead used a totally cool javascript grid bookmarklet that allowed me to dynamically overlay the site with a grid. It made it easy to tweak the margins and padding to line everything up as I had it in the mockup.

As always happens, I got everything set up and then checked it out in IE6 and of course, the code required some minor changes. I bring this up because 9% of you are STILL using IE6! I know some don’t have a choice, but if you do, please, I beg you, upgrade! Better yet, switch to Firefox.

Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others. ~Danny Thomas

In developing custom themes for WordPress, which is comprises the bulk of my work these days, I regularly run into issues, questions about how to accomplish a client request, and sometimes problems that are just beyond me. Recently, while developing a site using WordPress, I ran into a problem that completely kerflummoxed me. Suddenly, all the pages that had been set up stopped working, and I couldn’t even get to them in the admin panel. Turns out it seems I encountered a goofy bug in WP when I erroneously tried to delete the Uncategorized category. (I know you’re not supposed to delete that one – just checked it by mistake) I tried to fix it multiple ways, but to no avail and was at the end of my options as to what to try next.

What do you do when that happens? Where do you go for help?

1. Online friends and colleagues. Make it a practice as you get to know others online, to understand what they’re experts in and share with others what you do best in case they ever need help. We’re not networking just so there will be people to call on when we run into problems, of course, but it’s a nice side benefit.

2. Google (or other search engine). Almost always the first place I go if I don’t know of someone who can answer my question quickly, because there will usually be someone who has run into the same problem and found a solution that they’ve published so others can benefit.

3. Twitter, or similar social networking tools. Toss out your question to the masses and see what comes back. In my case, several of my friends on Twitter, like kristarella, dereksemmler, and brianyerkes, jumped in with suggestions.

4. Support forums, such as the WordPress support forum. Just as with using a search engine, I find that most of the time, someone has already run into the question or problem I’m having and I don’t even have to start a new thread to get an answer.

5. Other forums, such as Performancing Hive. I’ve been a part of multiple forums in the past, and have found value in all of them, but the Hive is by far the best one for networking, help and collaboration with some of the big-timers in the blog world. This is where I ultimately found the answer. Ryan, Jeff, Hart, Martyn, and Raj jumped in and the problem was solved within a day.

The thing that continues to impress me the longer I work in this online environment, is how extraordinarily helpful my online colleagues are. I regularly encounter people who will go out of their way, taking time out of their busy schedules to help, expecting absolutely nothing in return. Ask anyone who has been around here for long enough and they’ll tell you the same. Why do you think this is? What is it about the type of person who gravitates towards the online world that makes them tend to be selflessly generous and helpful?

Anyway, enough psychoanalysis… I just wanted to say thanks again to those who helped me out last week. I appreciate it!

First Steps

Before Vicky even got to the design process, she consulted the experts in how to prepare for a blog launch. There are many great articles out there to help with the planning process, but Vicky chose to go straight to a master blogging authority and consult with Chris Garrett. As a result, when she came to me, she had many of the pieces in place which made translating her vision into a blog design enjoyable.

Ready to Design

So, what are these pieces that made my job so much easier?

Concept – she knew what her blog was going to be about and she had an idea about how that might translate into visual terms. She didn’t tell me exactly what she wanted the header to look like of course. Rather, the concept she gave me for designing the header was somewhat abstract, but provided guidance enough for me to work with.

Target Audience – she knew who she was going to be writing to, and knowing this made my search for images that would work well in the header much easier. She even had an age range in mind.

Look and Feel – she had scoured the web for sites that appealed to her and had elements she thought would appeal to her target audience. She didn’t just have one inspirational site and color scheme, but several and she described what she liked about each.

The result

So much thought and preparation time made the design process go very smoothly, and the final result is a site we’re both very pleased with.

If you visit Vicky’s site, you’ll see that her first post is up and she has received 35 comments on it! Not only has she put a lot of time into the preparation for her blog’s launch, she is following it up by networking, the use of social media sites like Twitter and even some offline promotion using some MooCards that have her blog’s header on them.

Even if your budget doesn’t allow for professional consultation and design, taking the time to be very thorough in planning and preparation before launching a blog can make all the difference.