We just launched http://Clearly-Balanced.com – a company offering professional organizing services to the greater Seattle area.  The site is a custom design powered by WordPress.

We are ecstatic to announce the launch of http://sagementoring.org/ – A site representing a wonderful school based mentoring program based in Suquamish, WA.  Sage is a part of Washington State Mentors.  We developed this site working with the talented team at NPower Northwest utilizing WordPress as a content management system.  Look out for more collaborations between NPower Northwest and Creation-1 in the future!

Congratulations to our long time friend Melanie Duerkopp on her new WordPress powered blog!  Melanie is a talented photographer who specializes in weddings and portraits.  Check out her work- here and her blog- here

This is a just a quick reminder to all of our friends using WordPress.  Make sure you update to the new version- 3.1.3.   This will likely be the last version before 3.2.  It has several security fixes.  One of the most common reasons for getting hacked is having as outdated (and vulnerable) version!  Here are some of the updates that were made:

• Various security hardening by Alexander Concha.
• Taxonomy query hardening by John Lamansky.
• Prevent sniffing out user names of non-authors by using canonical redirects. Props Verónica Valeros.
• Media security fixes by Richard Lundeen of Microsoft, Jesse Ou of Microsoft, and Microsoft Vulnerability Research.
• Improves file upload security on hosts with dangerous security settings.
• Cleans up old WordPress import files if the import does not finish.
• Introduce “clickjacking” protection in modern browsers on admin and login pages.

We are ecstatic to announce the launch our most recent project for the Group Health Foundation.  The Gift of Health wall engages Group Health’s supporters by having them answer the question and post it on the wall.  We designed and developed this site for the WordPress content management system.  The client has full control over comment moderation and website management.

Alicia McLucas at IntoMyOwn.com wanted to rebrand her company and target a new demographic with her life coaching and mentoring programs.  Luckily, we developed her website in the beginning with the WordPress platform. The entire site was able to be easily updated.  We change the page titles and updated the imagery to reflect her new idea.  This is a shining example of the benefits of building a custom WordPress theme compared to working with no CMS or even other platforms.  Starting with a good foundation can save you a lot of time and money in the long run!

Do you have a blog hosted at WordPress.com? If so make sure you go in and change your password. There was a small security breach detailed here: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/security/ It doesn’t sound like a major security threat but it doesn’t hurt to take a bit of precaution. If you are running WordPress on your own server there is nothing to worry about. Happy publishing!

We just finished making a handful of fun updates to http://MilesMosley.com We added Jquery sliders to the Listen and Projects pages.  You can easily browse through the projects he is working on by category via the 4 image slider in the header.  We also developed a custom Twitter feed widget that is quite crafty!

Here’s a screenshot of the new Twitter widget design:

We just helped Sophos law in Seattle update and customize a new WordPress theme for their blog The Neighborhood Entrepreneur .  If you are a startup, entrepreneur or are looking for insight into the world of business law I would bookmark this valuable source for information.

Itstimeforbusiness.com is a community website by the Seattle Chamber built to engage local businesses and encourage economic recovery.

Moderating Comments

Editing a post in the WYSIWYG

Adding photos, video, and other media, to your site

WordPress is one of the most popular and flexible open source platforms for websites.  Because of this popularity spammers have found it to be an easy and vulnerable target for all kinds of different spamming methods.

Lets briefly cover the 3 most common types of spam you will be subjected to on a WordPress site.

Comment Spam:
Comment spam is when a comment is left on your post or page that  somehow links back to a suspicious website.  The comment is usually suspiciously broad like “Nice Post!” or “I agree”  or references something in no way related to your content.  The goal of the spammer is to raise the amount of incoming links to a website or even increase the saturation of certain target keywords. Not deleting or leaving yourself vulnerable to this type of spam can cause quite a few problems.  Your Google Pagerank depends heavily on the sites you associate yourself with so keep that in mind.

PingBack/ Trackback Spam:
When you are blogging it feels great to be noticed and have someone link back to your post.  Spammers take advantage of this by creating fake links back to your post.  In turn this “Pingback” records on your page depositing a link from the spammer.  Many people think of this as a good thing because we as bloggers are always looking for incoming links to help us move up in Pagerank.  Don’t let this bite bite you in the rear!  It doesn’t matter if you have a million incoming links if they are all from spammers.  Delete that ugly thing because you do not want your site associated in any way with spam.

Form Spam:
With the same goal as comment spam the spammer builds what is referred to as a “bot” (Think evil Decepticon from transformers).  The bot is programmed to search for forms to submit email spam by automatically filling out millions of forms at a time.  Becoming a victim to form spam can leave your inbox an absolute mess!

Solutions!!

Now that we know how and why spammers work lets do what we can to fend them off!

Akismet Plugin- Your first line of defense:

Akismet is no secret to WordPress users.  It’s only one of two default plugins in your WordPress install (The only one that actually does anything).  Despite this you wouldn’t believe how many sites I have logged in to and seen that the plugin is NOT ACTIVATED.  Yes, you have to register at wordpress.com and paste in your API key.  It takes an extra step but it will save you hours of daily work. I cannot stress this first step enough.  Akismet will save you from a majority of comment spam in one swoop.

Comment Timeout Plugin- For the old time bloggers:
As you write more and more articles you will notice that your archived articles are being spammed more than your fresh articles.  Often times an article can be grabbed by a spam bot and it will be difficult to release the hold of this evil little vulture!  That’s where Comment Timeout comes in.  You can set a number of days for your article to be open for commenting and then they will be disabled.

Captcha- Are you human?:
A captcha is a non- machine readable image that makes the user verify the contents before commenting or submitting a form.  You can find plenty of plugins for this both for commenting as well as contact forms.  Captcha can verify that your user is human and not a “bot”.

Wordpress Admin Settings-  Your built in spam ninja!:
Wordpress has a few settings that you can tweak to make your life easy when dealing with pesky spammers.

1.  Force your users to submit their name and email before they can submit a comment.
2.  Go to the Options>> Discussion panel and change your comment moderation.  Set the number of links for a comment to be held in moderation to 1.  The Default is 2.  Now when someone leaves a link on a post it is held in moderation.  Most spam contains links.
3.  In the comment moderation panel add to your spam words.  For instance, if you are getting hammered by prescription med spammers add words like, “viagara, tramadol, vicodin” to your spam list to prevent these comments and links.

Extra Tidbits-

Use a Gmail filter: Gmail has a pretty good spam filter.  You can utilize it by forwarding your email to your gmail account and forwarding those filtered emails to your “spam free” email account.

Replace text with an image: If you have your email address displaying on your site make sure it is not static text.  Create the button in photoshop and save it as a JPEG, GIF or PNG.  This will help your email address from being swooped up by the spam bots.

Don’t be a dummy: Think twice before you post your email address on a forum, newsgroup, or message board.  Spammers don’t just get email addresses from thin air (Although they are working on it).

Captain Obvious: Decide carefully what your companies email addresses will be.  If you don’t have an IT staff to clean up your email mess make sure you don’t have a corporate structure email.  For instance CEO@mycompany.com, or firstname.lastinitial@mycompany.com.  Get creative!  admin@ or webmaster@ are all just begging to be spammed!

I hope you came out of this with a bit more insight on how to prevent wordpress spam and maybe even spam in general.  The root of spam is held in the hands of greedy humans who’s ideas are constantly evolving.  As web publishers we need to be moving right along next to them with a shield to block these mischievous little creatures!

We worked with Erica Mills and her team at Claxon Marketing to build a website and blog utilizing the Genesis Theme Framework.  Genesis is a theme “Framework” that adds plenty of useful functionality to WordPress like additional widget ready areas, customization of header and footer areas, easy to implement page templates and more.  The goal was to build something simple, to the point, and easy to use. Enjoy!

We just launched our first website in China!  Asia MTM is a business that serves as a partner for companies who want to manufacture goods in China.  It was a pleasure working with such an international company.  We designed and developed this site to be managed by Asia MTM via the WordPress CMS.  A big thank you to Russell Smith for contributing his skills to provide us with some polished site content.  Learn more about Asia MTM here.

I read a great article at Smashing Magazine about the key differences between WordPress and Joomla.  It really highlights the advances the 3 main CMS platforms have achieved.  Only 2 years ago your choice of using WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal was dependent on the project specs and the limitations of the platforms.  Now for the most part the choice is really up to the developers preferred method.  We have always preferred wordpress because we feel that it is easiest for the end client to use.  The last thing we want to deliver is a CMS that is intimidating to the client.

We collaborated with the talented designers at ARTJOCKS in Los Angeles to develop a custom blog for multi-talented artist China Brooks.  The blog serves as a mouthpiece for her spiritual teachings and services.  Take a look at the site and enjoy!

Here is a video of Andy Peatling- the leader of Buddypress giving a presentation of Buddypress in action:

We have launched the website for the new modern apartment building in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle View 222.  The site serves as a home-base for renters info and building photos as well as a way to contact the management to set up appointments and ask questions.  Take a look! http://View222.com

WordPress for iphone:

Wordrpress for Blackberry:

• What is it?
• Is it a professional tool or just for bloggers and amateurs?
• Is it here to stay or is it just a fad?
• What is WordPress used for?

All of these questions are answered by the man himself- Matt Mullenweg (Wiki Page).  To make a long story short, this guy invented WordPress.

We were commissioned by talented LA Upright Bass Player Miles Mosley to develop a feature rich custom WordPress theme that helps engage his fan base.  We built in a truck load of custom features that help him update the website in a more simple and efficient way without having to hire out for updates.  This project was a great example highlighting the power and flexibility of WordPress as a content management system.  Take a look

I just read a great article at Smashing Magazine that is a must read for anyone thinking about a new website.  We build 95 percent of our websites with a content management system that allows the client to update and edit their content with ease.  The article helps explain the capabilities of content management systems and the basic principles behind  them.

Click Here to read the article!

We have Launched http://TheViews.org ! The Views is a Local San Diego Newspaper that is transitioning to 100% digital.  We helped them design and manage the site as well as set up various advertising opportunities throughout the site.

WordPress has released version 2.8!  If you are using the WordPress content management system and haven’t updated it in a while please CONTACT US .  You are missing out on some amazing new features like:

- More freedom with your widgets.

- Auto update of your plugins.

-One click WordPress version update!  Yes its TRUE!

- Better theme selection and previewing and more!

Your really missing out on an overall faster and more convenient system as a whole.  Are you ready to make the switch?  Give us a call- 206.245.3539

We have successfully launched our first church website!  Our mission was to create a new more modern site for NCC that showed the church as an interactive community of members rather than just an informational website.  Through features such as a blog, calendar, prayer request forms, and PDF bulletins, church members and other people of faith from around the world are able to interact with each other.  This site acts as an extension to the church and will be a great tool as they add more content and features.

Click Here to visit New Community