Tag Archives: WordPress

May 27th, 2013 | 6:17 AM

Happy Birthday WordPress!

wordpress 10 625x82 Happy Birthday WordPress!

My web publishing platform of choice; WordPress, is ten years old today. Started in 2003 with humble beginnings, WordPress is now the most loved and most popular Content Management System of choice for millions of blogs and websites world wide. I have worked with WordPress since 2005 and since then I’ve never been frustrated, disappointed nor felt the need to look elsewhere for my web publishing needs. Whenever I am asked for advice in terms of which Content Management System to use, I always recommend a self-hosted WordPress install from WordPress.org. It is, by far, the best system currently available.

Not only do I use WordPress to run this very website; I also use it as my tool of choice when developing websites for clients. If you’re looking for someone to help you build a kick-ass WordPress website, get in touch with me.

Happy Birthday to WordPress, the BEST website Content Management System available.

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April 17th, 2012 | 12:15 PM

Exciting Changes Are Coming Soon!

I’ve been tweeting about re-designing my website for quite some time. Even though I really love the current layout, some topic-specific readers do not. With the current layout everything is mashed together into a single string of posts. For those of you only interested in fashion related content are currently also bombarded with entertainment, and personal posts right on the home page. Sure you can just click through to the “Fashion Blog” category from the link in the side-bar, but there are better ways to handle this…

The main RSS feed has also been featuring content from all categories – Those not interested in certain topics are currently forced to consume all content if they have subscribed to my blog via Feedburner. – This is really cool if we share the same interests, but if you’re like the the majority of my readers who only come here for a specific topic, such as fashion, then I’m sure you’d prefer a more tailored subscription feed showcasing only your categories of interest.

The new DAVIDVENTER.NET – Coming soon, will feature a complete re-design. The home page will showcase snippets from the latest articles of each category allowing you to quickly spot and navigate directly to the content of your interest instead of scrolling through various unrelated articles. I will be launching a collection of new category/topic specific RSS feeds which will enable you to subscribe only to the articles of your choice, bypassing other topics which you may not find interest in. In addition to these exciting changes, I will also be adding new Home & Garden Blog and Online Gaming Blog categories; something which I’ve wanted to do for a very long time but thought it would be inappropriate to dump World of Warcraft articles or pool cleaning tips in-between fashion shows. With the restructuring of DAVIDVENTER.NET I will be able to share more content from more categories with you guys, without making it appear like an un-related mess/mash in a single thread.

Watch this space for the awesome and exciting changes coming soon!

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February 9th, 2011 | 9:38 AM

My Thoughts on Amateur vs. Pro-Blogging

Blogging is not what it used to be. It has become a mainstream activity that is rarely taken seriously by anyone since it became possible for any Internet newbie to create their own blog with very little effort and zero cost thanks to Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, etc… Many newbie bloggers simply use their blog as a space to vent or post an online journal in the classic ‘dear diary’ style yet they fail to realize that blogging can actually be so much more. There are many pro-bloggers two whom blogging is a full time job as well as a pay check at the end of the month. Unfortunately due to the mass increase of free blogging tools the general public have started abusing the blogosphere and we now have to work more than twice as hard as we have had to a year or two ago in order to remain a step above the rest.

Competition is healthy in any industry but I think that with so many people not taking blogging seriously anymore this is not competition, it’s ignorance. With millions of amateur bloggers to stand up against, we are facing a fork in the road: We’ll either become the envy of all amateur bloggers or we’ll be mistaken as amateur-bloggers and thus lose our credibility or simply not being taken seriously.

Many amateur bloggers fail to realize that most of the news and fashion sites that they visit such as the CNN or the New York Times websites, for example, are actually well constructed blogs that are taken seriously by billions of people from all over the globe. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the word ‘blog’ shall we?

Continue reading →

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March 23rd, 2010 | 1:35 AM

Testing a new look – What do you think?

The current layout that you see here is a new look that I am testing. For quite some time now I’ve wanted to add another widget column to my blog and create a more “grown up” look all together. A look that is easy on the eyes, doesn’t draw too much attention away from the actual content, and a look that is professional and appealing. Have I achieved those objectives with this one?

The “DVN” that you see at the top right is simply a placeholder for a personal brand logo that I will be launching soon. A lot of effort and research is going in to creating my new personal brand so I hope that you will enjoy following it as much as I enjoy creating it! – What do you think about this layout? Yay or Nay?

>> Click here to leave a comment <<

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January 28th, 2010 | 10:44 AM

Some Great Web News

When I started Vervean Media my aim was to provide professional service at unbeatable prices. After many years of experimenting with various different open-source content management systems I have decided to stick with one, and use it for EVERYTHING.

That one is WordPress. I blogged about it >here<.

I eventually got around to setting up a special ‘WordPress Premium’ package for those is need to a professional, state-of-the-art CMS website.

wordpress premium Some Great Web News

Vervean Media brings you the most affordable, scalable and reliable website solution; Customised WordPress Websites.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a state-of-the-art, open-source publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your publishing software, not fight it.

WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to be used as full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes, WordPress is limited only by your imagination.

With WordPress you have the ability to log in to a user friendly back-end administration system allowing you to add/edit/delete website pages and content using a browser based WYSIWYG editor, much like working in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages.

Our Complete Solution:

For as little as R1,499.00 once off and R95.00 per month we will create a professional, customised front-end layout/design for your WordPress website. We will also customise the system code to your specification and install up to 5 additional modules, and customise them to your preferences. We will also pre-load your website with up to 10 pages of content and we’ll set up all necessary online feedback forms, subscriptions, links and do a once off Search Engine Optimisation and submission.

You will be provided with Login details to the WordPress back-end where you will be able to add/edit/delete pages, articles and media from your website, allowing you to update the website yourself. Alternatively you can hire Vervean Media to update the website for you charged at R250 per hour.

R 1,499.00 Setup Fee*

R 95.00 Monthly Fee*

*Subject to Signing a 24 month contract agreement.

CLICK HERE TO REQUEST A SIGN-UP FORM – CONTACT VERVEAN MEDIA

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January 12th, 2010 | 3:42 PM

WordPress, The BEST!!!

Last year I decided that its just too much work and way too costly to develop custom built content management systems for clients when instead, I could use one of many open source CMS solutions that due to its open code can by customised to suit the clients needs exactly as a “custom CMS” solution would.

I’ve been using many Open Source CMS solutions in the past, with the main ones begin Joomla and WordPress. Then as time went by I started focussing more on one then the other after realising its brilliant easy-of-use interface and ability to be customised to exact specifications. That one is WordPress.

A while ago I was still unsure of using open source content management systems to run professional corporate websites, but why I was unsure about that I have no idea. I guess I simple didn’t trust in the Open Source community enough, thinking that if it’s free its probably worth the price; nothing… But in actual fact its worth so much more then many of the really expensive content management systems our there because its code is compiled by millions of people from all over the globe, everyone contributes, and the end result is a very stable, professional, state of the art internet application.

After using WordPress for my own personal web blog for a couple of years, I’ve now decided that not only will I use it to run and maintain my company website, but I will build 90% of my clients websites on the wordpress platform. Not only will this make it more affordable for my clients since I only charge design fees, no coding feed and very affordable installation fees, but it will also allow me to administer updates much quicker, and even allow me to give access to my clients and for them to be able to update and maintain the website themselves, from an easy to use interface.

But of course if I’m going to do something like this and scrap all my old systems and coding methods in the process then I would really have to know what I am doing. And fortunately I do. After many years of working with WordPress its now easier then ever for me to create a “custom” solution for your specific needs, and after many hours of trial-and-error in WordPress template/theme creation I have now mastered the process and can create unique WordPress Themes/Templates from scratch.

So basically my business is slowly turning into a WordPress support, management, hosting, and design service, allowing anyone looking to use the WordPress platform with the best hosting, maintenance/service and designs that we have to offer and also moving a whole new Web 2.0 generation straight onto WordPress as their “first website” thereby putting them on what I believe is THE BEST open source content management system.

Under normal circumstances I would charge a client between R10,000 and R20,000 to build a custom content management system from scratch that does pretty much the same as WordPress, excluding the ability to easily add additional modules. But now I can offer a customised WordPress installation with a professional, unique theme layout fully installed, and with content populated, servers set up and everything working together from between R6500 and R8500 depending on hours required for custom modules and layout design.

On top of offering this service to most of my clients (some might prefer a full flash site or forum only, etc that WordPress back-end won’t be used for) I am planning on creating a collection of high quality, unique WordPress Templates that will be for sale on the Vervean Media website in the near future.

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May 4th, 2009 | 9:59 PM

Some WP Plugins have NASTY little surprises

I’m starting to make a list of which WordPress plugins to avoid (unless you have the time and the energy to ~~bitch and moan~~ complain to the creators and get them to fix things). Myself; I prefer things simple, it’s easier to ‘de-activate’ a plugin and get a decent replacement then to spend hours tying to track down the creator and hoping for a fix.

Well here you have it, some plugins to avoid (and the reason why):

Add To Facebook – Silly little app, there are better ones out there.
Bookmarkify – Another silly little app, avoid.
ShareButtons – This one is a HUGE eyesore.
WordPress Gravatars – Terrible coding, will slow down your whole server.

As I play around with different plugins and widgets I will carry on adding to the list of which to avoid, and in some time I will give you a list of the best ones and their uses.

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