Gone are the days where Dreamweaver (or FrontPage) was required to keep a company website up-to-date. WordPress is all the rage these days and allows my clients, small- to medium-sized business owners, the ability to maintain their company website with ease.

With over 3,000 WordPress plugins available, it can be overwhelming to choose which plugins will work best for your company website. Below is a list of what I have found to be the most essential WordPress plugins for small- to medium-sized business websites.

1. Akismet

Stop spending time deleting spam and more time creating content! Akismet automatically identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam so you don’t have to.

2. All In One SEO Pack

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is extremely important if you want your website to appear or rank high in search engine results. The All In One SEO Pack allows you to add titles, descriptions, and keywords which increases the chance of someone finding your website online.

3. Sociable

Word of Mouth Marketing has proven to be one of the most powerful ways to boost your business. By adding social media buttons to your website, Sociable makes it easy for people to spread the word about you.

4. Evermore

Website usability studies show that users read in small chunks. Sadly, most blog homepages are often too full and thus can deter visitors. Evermore automatically displays short previews of all your blog posts. This allows readers to easily scan your posts and read a quick preview. Evermore also gives you the capability to tailor the length and appearance of your previews.

5. WP Cache

WP Cache allows your WordPress website to run faster. ‘Nuff said.

6. StatPress

Similar to Google Anayltics, StatPress is a light-weight, real-time plugin that manages your website’s statistics. StatPress collects information about visitors, spiders, keyword searches, feeds, browsers, referring sites, and more.

7. WPtouch iPhone Theme

More and more people are using mobile phones to surf the internet. The Wptouch plugin converts your normal WordPress blog into a mobile website. The theme is only visible when your site is viewed on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

This week, Ribbons of Red was featured on Smashing Magazine for releasing an iPhone Vector Pack Freebie. The vector pack comes with several buttons, six different iPhone interfaces, and three keyboards. You can download the iPhone Vector Set for free at Smashing Magazine. This is a great way to present mobile websites or applications to clients, and I hope other mobile designers will get great use out of it!

The iPhone Vector Pack Includes

1. iPhone
2. Dictionary Scrubber
3. Three keypads (Letters, Numbers, Symbols)
4. Large Key Press
5. Application Icon
6. Title Spinner
7. Date Spinner
8. List Chooser
9. On/Off Sliders
10. General Slider
11. Loading Icon & 3G Icon
12. Call Options (Mute, Keypad, Speaker, Add Call, Hold, Contacts)
13. Six Interface Modes (Welcome, Application Home, Pop-Up Notification, Call Mode, Full Keyboard, Internet)

Earlier this week, I posted a review on the new project management system, FreelanceSuite. I purchased it for $69.00, after loving the demo, but since the purchase have been very dissatisfied with the lack of support and the product’s bad functionality/usability. I requested a refund from FreelanceSuite, and it’s very important you read this (if you are in any way, shape, or form interested in this product or just curious as to how this whole thing played out). This post is what the nightly news usually dubs as a CONSUMER ALERT or BUYER BEWARE.

As mentioned in my previous post about FreelanceSuite, their customer support is very quick to respond (although not very good at providing helpful information). The minute I requested a refund, there was no one to be found. After being avoided for several days, customer support finally got in touch with me.

I will let you read the conversation I had with FreelanceSuite below; you can draw your own conclusion as to whether you want to give your hard earned, freelance dollars to this company or not.

Me: “After having trouble during the installation, and then finding out my clients can not track their project’s overall progress through the “task” feature in FreelanceSuite, I would like to request that my $69.00 be refunded. Unfortunately, I have no use for this product if my clients can’t track the progress of their project. Thanks so much.”

FreelanceSuite: “I’m sorry you feel this way. I was just informed that this feature is actually added (along with many other additions) in the upcoming upgrade, scheduled to be released tomorrow.”

Me: “That is good to know for future buyers, but after all this trouble, I am no longer interested in the product. Please refund my money.”

I’m going to interrupt this lovely conversation to tell you TWO VERY IMPORTANT things. FIRST, after my second request for a refund, I was then avoided (again) for a few more days. During this time the so-called “feature update” was NEVER released. This makes me feel as though I was lied to in order for FreelanceSuite to keep my money. SECONDLY, the above conversation was DELETED in my ticket queue by FreelanceSuite. This is what I like to call… suspicious behavior. 

Just today, I opened another ticket, marked it as “high-priority”, and sent it with an all-caps title of “REFUND” and wrote the following statement below. FreelanceSuite, surprisingly, responded just this morning.

Me: “When I’ve asked a question about the product, I’ve been quick to get a response. I asked for a refund SEVERAL days ago only to be avoided. Please refund my money as this program is not worth the $69. If you will not refund my $69, then I will open a dispute with PayPal to get it returned. Thank You.”

FreelanceSuite: “Hi. I was going to issue the refund today, in spite of the fact that you’re not entitled for it, since you were able to see all features on our demo so there were no surprises. I will issue the refund later today (btw disputing on PayPal will be rejected since you already have the product). Thank you for your interest, good luck with your search.”

Maybe my anger is fuzzing up my judgment, but I not only found that reply rude, but unprofessional. No surprises you say? Au contraire! There were three bombs dropped on me this week: clients can’t track project progress, your customer support is terrible and offensive, and I was lied to. That’s not enough for a refund? Wow.

I’m a very honest person as I’m sure many of you out there are, and when things like this happen it angers and saddens me. I guarantee my money was not going to be refunded today; they deleted the original refund request as though it was never there! I don’t even expect them to make good on their latest refund promise.

Moral(s) of the Story

1. Be very careful where you spend your money.

2. A product demo is not a 100% accurate judgment of how you’re going to “mesh” with a piece of software, I don’t care what anyone says.

3. Always research your refund options, even if you think you’ll never need one.

Choosing your first project management system can be a daunting task, at least it has been for me. There are just so many choices out there both free and paid.

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around FreelanceSuite. For those of you who do not know what FreelanceSuite is, it’s a fairly new project management system that lets you keep track of projects, tasks, deadlines, invoices (clients can even pay online through the FreelaceSuite interface!), and much more. You can even mass mail all of your clients in a (text) newsletter type format.

FreelanceSuite has a full demo of their product online. I played around with the demo and loved it. I found that it was not only easy to pick-up, but simple enough for my clients to grasp with out a through explanation. That was HUGE for me. The interface was also attractive (which is always an added bonus). After a month of indecisiveness, I finally bit the bullet and purchased it for $69.00 this past weekend.

1. Purchase, Download, and What You Get

All in all, FreelanceSuite was very easy to purchase. After you create a user account, the product is purchased through PayPal. (Luckily, I already have a PayPal account, so this wasn’t an issue for me). After payment has been received, you’re kicked to your account area and can download FreelanceSuite immediately to your desktop. You are also provided with a product key. With your purchase of FreelanceSuite, you also get 6 months of free support.

2. Installation

Buckle your seat belts, because this is where it gets ugly. I have never, ever had so much trouble installing a program to my server in my entire life. FreelanceSuite uses an encoder called ionCube. Ever heard of it? Yeah, me either. It’s also all in PHP. This is bad for me, because I don’t know PHP — so if something goes wrong, and it’s PHP related, I blow my help whistle and start yelling for the lifeguard.

Luckily, 6 months of free support came with the purchase of FreelanceSuite. So just 10 minutes after I purchased the product, I created a support ticket and submitted it. It went something like this:

Me: Hi. I literally just purchased your product and am having issues installing it. It shows my server is having issues with the ionCube. Can you help?

Peer Ben-David: Our code requires ionCube. Make sure you have the latest encoders at http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php. If this doesn’t resolve the problem, contact your web host.

Hold on right there Peer Ben-David! You’re going to send me to a link that makes NO SENSE (to me) what-so-ever, to fix a problem with YOUR software? THEN if I can’t figure out what’s going on, I have to contact MY web host to help me with YOUR product? That did not sit well with me at all.

Needless to say, after two days, the problem was still not resolved. The FreelanceSuite Staff did not help me beyond this point. All the drivers I had were already up-to-date. They either had no idea how to fix the problem or they were just too lazy.

Thankfully I have an AMAZING hosting service (Omnis Hosting if you’re in the market). I poked around their support section, and by a stroke of luck, was able to find the solution to my problem. But that took about a day of tinkering with different things on my end, which in all honesty, was really frustrating.

3. The Program

On day three, I was finally able to get down to business. I added my first client with ease and input her email address, name, and phone number. Easy as pie! I added her project, “E-Commerce Website”, and I was even able to add a description to it. I then added two tasks to that project, “Website Mock-Up” and “Coding Phase”. I was able to add descriptions and deadlines to these tasks. Once I finished setting up a real live project, I logged in from the client side to see what my client would be viewing.

To my absolute amazement, clients are not able to see the tasks I create. All the client can see is the project. So if my client were to log in today, all she would see is that the E-Commerce Website is in progress and has a due date of January 1, 2009.

Are you serious? That’s it? How are my clients supposed to monitor the progress of the tasks? Isn’t that the whole point of the of a project management system?! In the task area I was allowed to input a description, due date, percentage completed, and even attached a mock-up design. How on earth is that not available for a client to view?! Again, I went back and contacted support.

Me: Hi there. Can client’s view the tasks I create? It’s important for me that they be able to track the progress of their project.

Neran Ashkenazi: Hello. In order to send something for the client, you’ll need to add a submission: manage projects -> project -> add submission -> send to client. You’ll be able to send text and files for the client to review and approve. 

Me: No, that’s not what I asked. Can a client view tasks I create?

Neran Ashkenazi: Tasks are for inner management and a client can’t view them. So far we didn’t receive requests from our customers for this feature.

What the hell? Not only do these people not listen, but really? You didn’t receive ANY requests, at all, for clients to be able to track their projects? Somehow, I don’t believe that.

So… in order for a client to view project progress, a new project has to be created for every part instead of a task. This is insanely cumbersome. This means I have to create a project for the website as a whole, one for the mock-up, one for the coding, and then one for whatever else needs to be done on top of that. When you create a project, you can’t mark it a percentage done. Then every time you create a project, you have to go through the whole process of: is the client’s invoice paid or unpaid, what client belongs to this project, etc. It’s a huge time waster. Doing it this way, just so the client can see it, will mean you could essentially have dozens (or hundreds) of unorganized projects running wild in your dashboard. This was a deal-breaker for me.

5. The Conclusion

Overall, I feel that FreelanceSuite is too new to be purchased. It is still in it’s first version and was only launched this year. The only pro I found about the software was that it was easy to use. Customer support does responds very fast, but not with very good information.

Sadly, when I requested a refund, the FreelanceSuite Staff was no where to be found. The slowest I ever heard from them was four hours later. It’s been a day since I requested a refund, and I’ve received no reply. I’m honestly a little worried I will not get my money back at all.

6. The Moral of The Story

What did I learn from this? As great as a demo is, it’s not a true test of a product. I also learned that I should have stuck with my original project management system, Project Pier, which is totally free, and customizable. Sometimes paid doesn’t mean better.

If you want to try out FreelanceSuite for yourself, I recommend the 14-day trial, which I accidentally overlooked when I purchased my product this weekend. You can choose this option when you go through the motions of actually trying to purchase the product.

If you have any questions about the product, I’d be happy to answer them in the comments section. Good luck!

Successful web and graphic designers are constantly seeking inspiration for their projects and ideas. I admit, up until recently, I’ve been very bad about saving (and seriously organizing) websites, photos, graphic snippets, copy and other items I’ve found to be extremely inspiring. Thankfully, I gave Evernote a try and have been using it for my inspiration library ever since! Below, you will find a list of other great tools to help you build your own inspiration library!

1. ScrnShots (Image Based)

If you capture your inspiration via screenshots, then this web-based, social bookmarking site might be for you. Start by creating a free account, and within minutes you’ll be uploading your inspirational screen grabs. The great thing about ScrnShots is there are NO LIMITATIONS on how many images you can upload to your account. Once you upload an image, don’t forget to tag it. This will allow you to search through your gallery for gems later.

ScrnShots also doubles as an inspiration gallery. Looking for a new way to make a form? Type “form” in the search bar and view tons of different screenshots from other users. Learn more about ScrnShots for your inspiration library.

2. FFFFOUND! (Image Based)

FFFFOUND! is a web-based service that allows users to post and share their favorite images. FFFFOUND! also dynamically recommends other inspirational images based on each user’s tastes and interests! In order to use FFFFOUND! you’ll have to install either a bookmarklet or Internet Explorer extension, which can deter some users. Learn more about FFFFOUND! for your inspiration library.

3. Diigo (Bookmark Based)

Diigo is a bit more involved than ScrnShots or FFFFOUND! and is based on bookmarking rather than uploading images. I would recommend Diigo to designers who are obsessed with bookmark organization (you know who you are!).

Diigo comes fully loaded with a customized dashboard to keep track of your latest bookmarks as well as your friends. You can keep your bookmarks to yourself by marking them as private or share them with the rest of the community.

Highlight text, tag, create lists, and even make notes on your bookmarked sites. Browse comments other people have left and even write back to them if you are so inclined. Also, don’t forget to download the Diigo FireFox extension to make bookmarking a breeze! Learn more about Diigo for your inspiration library.

4. Delicious (Bookmark Based)

For those of you who can do with out a visual, Delicious serves as a great inspirational bookmarking tool. The best thing about Delicious is that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere, on any computer.

Organize your bookmarks with tags and even section your tags off into groups. You can also write a description to remind yourself why you bookmarked a site. Delicious also comes with a great FireFox plug-in and allows you to save and tag on the fly. Learn more about Delicious for your inspiration library.

Additional Bookmarking Tools

If you’d rather your inspirational items be stored locally, you can always set up an external hard drive dedicated to your finds. There is nothing wrong with going back to the basics and organizing with folders.

However… if you are still interested in viewing additional bookmarking options, check out the list below for some up and coming solutions!

http://www.zeadoo.com
http://www.artypapers.com
http://www.vi.sualize.us
http://www.delizzy.com (A GREAT Delicious addition)
http://www.laterthis.com
http://www.ibreadcrumbs.com
http://www.iterasi.com
http://www.wallowr.com
http://www.faves.com
http://www.sharethis.com

Yesterday evening I was at Barnes & Noble with my fiance. We try to go there a couple of times a month and scope out the new design books and magazines. He brought to my attention Web Designer Magazine as it was all about WordPress.

There is a section on page #26 called the “WordPress Wall”, and quick-flipped to that page. The “WP Wall” is home to a beautiful little inspiration collection of 72 websites built using WordPress. As I browsed through them, #67 caught my eye. My mouth dropped open, I did a double take, and I think I said something to the effect of, “Oh my god… Ryan. Ribbons of Red is in this! Did you see this?!”

As I explored the page futher, I saw that Ribbons of Red is on the same page as WooThemes, Smashing Magazine, GOMEDIAZINE, WebDesignerWall, and N.Design Studio just to name a few. It’s such an honor to be listed with other designers and websites I have such a high respect for! This is the first time I’ve had my website published in a global, popular design magazine. I have such a great sense of accomplishment, and I still can’t believe it.

That’s my 15 minutes of fame! :)

I’ll be the first to tell you, about 1,000 times, that I hate politics. I can’t wait until the election–not because I’m dying to cast my vote, but because I want it to end. I’m sick of all the cheesy he-said-she-said TV commercials and advertisements at every turn of a corner.

Enter Palin As President!

Palin As President provided me with a nice break from all the media annoyances, and made me laugh so hard at some points, that I was doubled over at my desk in pain.

What is Palin As President?

For those of you who haven’t already seen it, Palin As President is a website made by a couple of friends to poke fun at Sarah Palin. This website is their vision of what it would be like if John McCain died in office and Palin was granted presidency. This website is not only hilarious, but fun.

How Does It Work?

Roll your mouse around the room to move things, find clickable areas, and reveal clever surprises. Make sure you have on your sound to hear Palin yell, “MAVRICK!” and various other “OOPSIES” and “OH DEARS!”.

Fun Things To Look For!

1. The Deer
2. Baby Names
3. Dog with Lipstick
4. Political Book
5. Shotgun
6. Rioting Crowd
7. And much, much more!

In All Seriousness…

All joking aside, this website is a great example of a fantastic looking interactive Flash website. It loads seamlessly, the environment is beautifully done, and the sound is even crisp.

Oh, and check back daily! The website is being updated everyday until the election–and Lord knows, we could all use that daily laugh!

I’m Renee Rist, and I approve this message.

Today is a sad day. My ENTIRE website (html, css, graphics, design-down-to-the-last-detail) has been hijacked by an Indonesian company called Terminal Pulsa (http://www.tp-makassar.co.cc/home.htm). I found out about this hijack after sifting through my Google Analytic results. I saw that I’ve been getting about 28 hits a day from an Indonesian website as well as Google Search hits from keyword phrases such as, “Terminal” and “Terminal Pulsa”. Thankfully, I’m curious by nature and investigated this odd behavior.

My first string of thoughts went something like this, “How dare them! I worked hard on this site! It’s dedicated to my grandma, who I loved with all my heart. AND I’m even in the process of giving to charities! Why would someone think this is okay to do?!” Quickly followed by, “Great, this place is overseas and surely they do not hold to the same legal standards as the United States.”

Please note that I am NOT a lawyer (thank God), but the following information below should really help you out if you ever have this happen to you!

Crap, I was hijacked. What do I do now?

1. Chill out. This is obviously easier said than done as I always thought when someone copied my work I’d be flattered. Sadly, I wasn’t.

2. Find their contact information. Use http://www.iptools.com or your favorite WHOIS tool to find out who the heck owns your website’s evil twin. I had some trouble finding mine because it didn’t have a “.com” address; my hijacked website contained a “.co.cc”. If you have one of these oddities, you can check the WHOIS at this website: https://www.co.cc/whois/whois.php. Along with finding contact information, you can also find out who their web host is. Once you find out this information, you can send a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter to them as well as contact their hosting provider if you are so inclined.

3.  Send a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter. Once you have the appropriate contact information you can send a Cease and Desist letter. The Cease and Desist letter I used is located here. It’s not pretty looking, but it did the job. There are lots of other Cease and Desist templates out there, so have a look around for one that fits your needs. The purpose of a letter like this is to establish professionalism rather than the very vocal ‘take-my-website-down-now-you-jerk-wad’ kinda email (which will probably not prompt an intelligent response anyway). The Cease and Desist letter also uses legal jargon as well as a perceived valued fine, both which will probably scare the bejesus out of your website hijacker.

4. Ask for help! This blog post is only one of hundreds of resources available online. When I was hacked today, I reached out to my twitter friends and my AMAZING Link Queen, Angie. Everyone was super helpful.

Oh noes! The hijackers didn’t listen to me! Now what can I do?!

1. Tell all the search engines how much of a big jerk they are (aka REPORT THEM!) You MUST try a Cease and Desist letter first. I repeat: try a Cease and Desist letter first! This usually fixes the problem within 24 hours, and it’s a helluva lot easier than contacting search engines one by one by one. If this doesn’t work, then you can report them (see below!).

As we all know, copyright laws in India, China, or even the UK are not the same as the laws here in the United States. Thankfully for us, almost all search engines will recognize rip-offs and fakes. The only catch is that you have to provide proof… but that should obviously be easy. The downside is that Google doesn’t make it easy (or quick) to report this type of activity. This was disheartening to me, considering almost all of my keyword search traffic comes from Google. Almost all the other search engines allow you to report these cases via email. Google forces you go through a third-party company, which makes you either fax (that’s so 1990) or snail mail (are you serious?!) your claim to them.

But… I’m STILL really mad!

1. Don’t be stupid! It’s alright to be mad, but beyond calling attention to this matter in your personal blog (as I did) do not go plastering the hijacking all over the internet. Oddly enough, you can get sued for what I call slander. Weird, right? So be careful.

Prevention.

1. Hide that code! If being hijacked has left a nasty taste in your mouth or if you are scared of this happening to you, there are things you can do to try to prevent this from happening. One thing you can do is encrypt your code. Have a look at this website for more information on code protection.

Other helpful links!

What to do when someone steals your content
Tutorial: How to hide your CSS files
Protecting your website from theft
The webmaster’s theft resource by SitePoint
302 Redirect hijacking prevention

I don’t know about all of you, but when I was a kid, I lived off juice boxes. Caprisun, Kool-Aid, Juicy Juice… mmmm! I still love those drinks to this day!

As we all know, all the cool kids are being “green” these days. There is even a television station devoted to anything and everything environmentally friendly. So can you imagine my excitement when I found a whole basket of recycled Caprisun and Kool-Aid pouches turned into pencil bags! What a cool little oddity for a designer like me! You have no idea how many colored sharpies I own.

The tag on my $1.00 Caprisun pencil case reads, “Billions of drink pouches are thrown out each year. TerraCycle collects these waste pouches and turns them into cool products! If your organization would like to collect drink pouches and get paid for it go to www.terracycle.net/brigades .”

So this cool company called TerraCycle Inc., takes old drink pouches and makes all types of creative items. The best part about TerraCycle is that they build all of their products out of items that can’t be recycled! I only saw the pencil bags in person, but they also make a bunch of other neat green items. Some of their other products include diskette notepads, drink pouch folders and bags, etc. You can view an entire list of their items on their products page.

Lately, I have been getting more and more requests to do e-commerce websites. It seems that everyone is trying to sell products online these days. My weapon of choice is normally OpenCart, although it’s a bit hard, well… confusing to skin. It has too many identical folders that all mean different things. It’s weird. Take my word for it. However, it serves it purpose well enough, but I’m never satisfied until I feel like I’ve had the best.

Enter Magento. One of my twitter friends (biggie-ups James!) referred me to Magento, another open source shopping cart. Although I have not used it yet, I plan to.

You can view a demo of the default Magento Cart here. Compare the default look with the skinned Magento carts below. I had no idea it was so customizable. After seeing that the websites below are Magento powered, I’m sold on giving it a try!

Ukko

Mia & Maggie

Little Zen Minds

Myriad Fine Art

The Recycled Retriever

InAroha Jewelry

Got Mojo

Rubie Green

Trendy Empire