If, while using Internet Explorer 8 as your browser, you see a webpage that looks different or appears better defined in another type of browser please know that the reason is because IE8 does not support the CSS3 or HTML5 that was used in programming the webpage you are looking at.

Art Unlimited will no longer downgrade coding to support older browsers. In order to keep our focus on the current and cutting edge technologies of web design, we will need to continue to move forward. This means that from time to time we need to discontinue providing support for older technologies.

We are also recommending that it is time to move from Windows XP. As it is over 10 years old the XP structure map has become well know, posing security issues. Windows 7 has surpassed Windows XP and recently Windows 8 was released. If you are moving from an older Windows operating system and an older Internet Explorer browser we feel that the best match-ups would be either Windows 7 / IE9 or Windows 8 / IE10.

All of the websites Art Unlimited have done still run on the latest browsers, since these sites were written with XHTML or HTML4. We use the latest tools in web development and graphic design to stay ahead in our industry. At this time our newest websites are based in HTML5 and CSS3 unless they are CMS platforms.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Art Unlimited.

Here are a few simple steps to get you started along your way to editing on your WordPress website.

BASIC STEPS FOR EDITING CONTENT

Log in: This will take you to the Dashboard of your website.

Pages/All Pages: In the menu column to the far left click on Pages then select “All Pages”. This will open the list of Pages on the website.

Select Desired Page: This will open up a template page. The top line is the Page Title. Most edits will take place in the Body (the large square of text). It is recommended that the tab at the top right of the box be on “Visual” not “HTML” for editing (HTML will have coding interspersed with text. If altered the page will not look the way it should).

Make correction/additions to the content as desired.

Tool Bar items that you may want to use:

Kitchen Sink: Make sure the Kitchen Sink icon section is open on the tool bar above the body of your Page. This will give you 2 lines of icons/boxes for editing. While you can use all of them I am only going to talk about 2 of the icons/boxes at this time.

Spell Check: Make correction where appropriate. Add words that may not be in the dictionary that you know you will be using again.

Header Settings: Next to “Paragraph” is a down arrow. Clicking on that will open a drop down menu that can be used to turn parts of what you’ve written into Heading and Subheadings. The smaller the number the bigger the size of the lettering. Make sure that whatever you want to enlarge is on a line of its own with space above and below.

SEO

WordPress SEO By Yoast: In boxes below the Page Content area are your SEO Settings.  First you will see a “Snippet Preview” This is what will show on the Search Engines.

Focus Keyword: Using lower case letters, put one key phrase you expect this page to be found for.

SEO Title: This may automatically be filled in with the Title of your Page, but you may also write another Title that is more descriptive, where you can use punctuation, telling what the page is about in 70 characters or less.

Meta Description: Enter a brief description about the topic of the Page. You can take a main thought or write a teaser of what you want people to know about the Page. Make sure it fits the topic. Try to keep this to 156 characters, about the size of a Tweet, as search engines clip it off if it is longer.

When you have finished Editing your Page Content:

Preview Changes: Scroll up the right side of the page and click “Preview Changes” This should open a new tab showing the Page with the corrections you have made before they become permanent, although some of the images may not show until you have Updated. If you need to continue with edits, click the Edit Page tab at the top of your screen and continue editing the Page.

Update: If you are through with the changes, click “Update” in the right side column.

NO WORK DONE ON THE WEBSITE WILL BE SAVED UNLESS “UPDATE” HAS BEEN CLICKED AND ALLOWED TO SAVE THE WORK.

TO ADD A NEW PAGE

Add Page: In the menu column to the far left click on Pages then select “Add Page”. This will open a new template screen.

Title: At the top is a line where you type in the Title. You want to limit the Title to no more than 60 characters if possible, avoiding punctuation. (This title will be the on that becomes part of the URL and punctuation will not show up in titles but will add extra dashes in the URL.)

Body: In the body (the big blank square) you will put what you want to say. In here punctuation is not an issue, just write naturally. Think about telling your content at two levels. Write the content you want to know, but then go back and pick out the key thought of a paragraph and make that the subheading above that paragraph. At the end of the piece look back and see if someone could get the main idea of what you were sharing by just reading those subheadings. Ideally this is what you want to shoot for.

Once you’ve gotten this far you could publish it, but you really want to take the time to do a few more things.

EDITING

Once you have completed writing your Page you will want to use the editing and tools discussed above before you Publish it.

PREVIEW

It is always a good idea to preview the page before you Publish it. This allows you to see how it would look on the website and discover if you need to make adjustments in the Header sizes, alter any images you may have added, or whatever else you may find. Clicking the “Preview Changes” button under the “Publish” section on the right will open a new window (so you don’t have to worry about how to get back to the page you are working on). Just click the Tab that says “Edit Page” and this will put you on the page you want to be at to finish working on your post.

PUBLISH

Once you have everything in place you are ready to Publish. At the upper right side is a box that says “Publish”. If you are ready to let everyone read this post just click the blue Publish button. You have now posted a page! Pages need to be added to the Menu before anyone will be able to navigate to them through the website without having the URL to go directly to the page.

NOT READY TO PUBLISH

If you do not feel that you want the world to read this post right away click the “Save Draft” button. Once you have Saved your page you can move to another page or end your time on the website. When you want to go back to that post, on the left column click “Pages” and just go to “All Pages” and click on the Page you want to Edit. You can then make the changes you want. Once you are done you can either save your draft again, publish immediately, or set a date and time to publish.

REMEMBER ALL NEW PAGES MUST BE ADDED TO THE MENU IN ORDER FOR ANYONE TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO FIND THEM USING THE NAVIGATION MENU.

So there you have it. Everything you need to know to edit or create a new page for your website. Have fun!

Make sure you have loaded your desired Image into the Media Library

Find  Image  in the Media Library and Click on the desired photo

Click Edit Image under photo

Once you get to the Edit Image Screen you have a number of Options. You can Scale or Resize the image, Crop or Rotate it, or set the size and focus of the Thumbnail. Make sure you Update Media after each Edit.

It is Best to Adjust the Scale of the Image before doing any cropping, rotating, etc

You can then resize the photos to desired size (check for recommended sizes for your specific theme)
You can proportionally scale the original image. For best results the scaling should be done before performing any other operations on it like crop, rotate, etc. Note that if you make the image larger it may become fuzzy.

Example’s Original dimensions 1280×960

Crop the photos to focus on what you want visitors to see

Images can be cropped as you choose
The image can be cropped by clicking on it and dragging to select the desired part. While dragging the dimensions of the selection are displayed below.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Arrow: move by 10px
• Shift + arrow: move by 1px
• Ctrl + arrow: resize by 10px
• Ctrl + Shift + arrow: resize by 1px
• Shift + drag: lock aspect ratio

Crop Aspect Ratio
You can specify the crop selection aspect ratio then hold down the Shift key while dragging to lock it. The values can be 1:1 (square), 4:3, 16:9, etc. If there is a selection, specifying aspect ratio will set it immediately.

Crop Selection
Once started, the selection can be adjusted by entering new values (in pixels). Note that these values are scaled to approximately match the original image dimensions. The minimum selection size equals the thumbnail size as set in the Media settings.

Thumbnails sizes for original Images can be cropped and set as desired  

Thumbnail Settings
The thumbnail image can be cropped differently. For example, it can be square or contain only a portion of the original image to showcase it better. Here you can select whether to apply changes to all image sizes or make the thumbnail different.

Make sure you save all changes you will want to keep as you work by clicking on the “Update Media” button.

Now you are ready to add your optimized image into your post.

Under Dashboard – Click Sideshow Photos

Add New Slideshow Photo

Add Title – As you get more images into this you may want to use the Address as the Title

Upload Image – Click on Camera Icon (Upload/Insert) above Text Field. Select an image from your computer – you can either do a traditional upload or drag & drop

Link URL (Optional) – If you want people to be able to go to the MLS Listing information on another web browser tab go to the current online MLS listing  – copy the URL for the desired property and insert it into this space

Publish

NOTE: If for some reason you need to wait on adding this image to the Slideshow you can “Save Draft” instead of publishing.

NOTE: You can set an already existing Slideshow Photo to Draft if needed to stop displaying it.

Add New Property Listing

Under Dashboard – Click Property Listings

Add New Listing

Add Title – I would recommend adding the Address of the Property here

Add Image – Use Upload/Insert (Camera Icon) to Upload an photo of the property into the Text box

Scroll down and fill in as many fields below the text box as possible starting at Address

Fill in All Required Fields (Bedrooms/Bathrooms not Required if Commercial Property) Note: All Required Fields are in Bold

Address

City and State (Punctuation & Zip Code are optional  – see what you prefer)

Primary Search Location – Set drop down to Minnesota (If you have properties outside MN please let us know so we can add the settings)

Skip Secondary Search Location & Google Maps Location (Google Maps will automatically pull from the address, city, & state already in place)

Price – Do not use $, comma, or period (199900 not $199,900)

Bedrooms – number of bedrooms (if Commercial your can skip)

Bathrooms – number of bathrooms (for ½ or ¾ baths please use .5 / .75)(If Commercial you can skip)

Property Type – Select from drop down (If there is a property type needed that is not listed please let us know so we can update your information according to your needs)

Choose an Agent – if left blank will be general, can choose a specific agent from the drop down box

Rent or Buy – currently not available – let us know if you want this activated

MLS Number – this is optional but recommended

Select Residential/Commercial from drop down (If you skipped numbers on Bedroom & Bathrooms make sure you select Commercial)

Size – Square footage of structure

Lot Size – Square Footage

Floors (can skip)

Garages – This is a drop down for number of cars that can fit in the structure

Garage Size – leave blank if no Garage

Date Available

Total Rooms

Basement – Select option from drop down

Deck or Patio – Select option from drop down

Year Built

School District

Banner – can choose Reduced / Sold if you choose

Open House Time – leave blank unless you have an Open House coming up

Show Street View – Default showing of the Google Street View of property

Under Right-side

Check appropriate box in front of Property Type

Check appropriate box under Features – # of Bedrooms

Check appropriate box in front of Price Range

Ignore Property Location

Publish

NOTE: If for some reason you need to wait on adding this Property Listing you can “Save Draft” instead of publishing.

Note: Only the 2 newest Property Listings will show on the home page.  To keep a property that is already in the list on the home page you can reset the date/ time of publication so that it is newer than the ones above it. (If Publication of newest listing is Sep 7 2012 15:42:15 set the listing you want on top to Sep 7 2012 15:44:15)

The left column under “My Dashboard” shows some of the main metrics of site performance, including Visitors, Unique Visitors, Pages per Visit, Bounce Rate, Visits by Social Network.

The line graph shows the amount of visits per day throughout the month. You may see peaks and valleys week to week. You may be able to track these peaks back to online or offline advertising. For most sites, Monday through Friday will have the largest amount visitors, with less people coming to the site on the weekends.

Visitors are the amount of people that have come to your site during the time period of the report. Unique visitors are the people that have come to your site for the very first time. Google uses a first party cookie to track whether people have visited your site before. Google Analytics’ cookies expire after 30 minutes.  Pages per visit takes the amount of pageviews divided by the amount of visitors to give you an idea of how deep visitors are getting into your site during their visit. Many sites average 2-3 pages per visit.

The bounce rate is the percentage of people that leave your site from the same page on which they’ve entered, essentially “bouncing” from your site. A high bounce rate shows us that visitors are not finding what they expect on your site or they may be frustrated and leaving without looking further. A good benchmark is a 30-60% bounce rate, depending on your industry. Keep in mind, some users may be logging on to your site to find contact information or read your latest blog entry. While they are bouncing from the site, it’s not always a bad sign nor is it preventable. If your bounce rate is of concern, it is  a good idea to review your site’s content section within Analytics to identify the pages that have a higher than preferred bounce rate. By reviewing the site page by page, you can identify problem areas and address them by adjusting the navigation or adding a call to action to the page. It is also a good idea to test different versions of the page to see how they perform in comparison.

The middle column shows pageviews and average visit duration by visitor type. The two visitor types are new visitor and returning visitor. This shows how many pageviews each type of visitor has completed and what their average visit duration has been. This helps us to judge how new visitors are using the site in comparison to returning visitors. In most cases, returning visitors will view less pages and spend less time on the site. A good benchmark for average visit duration is about 2 minutes.

The pie chart below this information shows the unique visitors by visitor type. It breaks down the amount of unique visitors out of your new visitors and the amount of unique visitors out of your returning visitors. Any new hits from the same IP address will count as a new visit, but not a unique visit. Keep in mind, the unique visits amount can be deceiving because each time someone visits from a different location (work computer, iPad iPhone, home computer) this will count as a unique visit.  A unique visitor means a single IP address that visits a website any number of times.

Below that shows the visits and average visit duration by city. This chart shows you each city broken down by visits and the average visit duration from each of those cities. This will show you if the areas you are targeting geographically are performing very well on your site. For example, if you’ve spent a large amount of money advertising in a certain city without any return, or many visits from that city, it may be a good idea to refocus your advertising efforts.

In the upper right there is another pie graph broken down by traffic type. The three types of traffic are organic, referral and direct. Organic traffic is free traffic from search engines. These search results were “organically” created, rather than generated by a pay per click campaign. Referral traffic is the traffic that has been referred to your site, generally by a link on another site. This is one of many reasons that link building is great for your site. You may notice referrals from “google.com” and wonder why this isn’t considered part of search engine traffic. If someone is using a Google tool (like email or an RSS feed) that has a link to your site, it would be recorded in this fashion. Direct traffic is traffic that has come directly to the site, many times from an offline advertising source. If your direct traffic is lower than you would prefer, it is a good idea to review where your website URL is appearing offline, i.e. Is it included on your business cards or invoices? If you do any printed advertising, is the URL in a prominent area? Do you have your website posted in your physical location? Many people ask what amount of traffic from each types is ideal, but it can vary based on your own goals. However, I think about 60% from search engines, 30% from referral, and 10% from direct traffic is a good amount.

In the lower right of your emailed report, you will see visits and page views by keyword. Keywords are what people are using to search online. A keyword is generally more than just one word. Some people call them “key phrases” or “long tail keywords” to show they are longer search queries. Many searchers use keywords with 3-5 words in them. Google allows users keep their searches from being tracked and this will show up as (not provided) in your keyword report. Any time your Google Analytics keyword report shows traffic from “(not set)”, these are keywords hits coming from a pay per click campaign. There are ways to update your report so that it will record the exact keywords from your PPC campaign as well.  The middle column of this report shows you how many visits you received from each keyword and the right column shows you how many page views each keyword produced. This can give us a good idea of what keywords are leading quality traffic to the site.

In the bottom right, you will see a “Visits and Pageviews by Mobile” chart. This shows if visits came from a mobile device, how many visits from mobile, and how many pageviews mobile or non-mobile visits generated.

This is just a small preview of the wealth of website data and measurement metrics available through Google Analytics. If you have other tracking or Google Analytics questions, don’t be afraid to ask, we are here to help!

As a business grows and staff get added who you have involved in various forms of social media may change and evolve. Here is Art Unlimited’s easy step-by-step instructions for adding someone to the administration of your company Facebook Page.

Here’s how to make someone an “Admin” on your Facebook Fan Page:

1. The person you want to make an admin must first be a “fan” of your Facebook Fan Page. This is always the first thing overlooked by people. They don’t realize that in order to be an admin, you must first be a “fan” – which makes sense I suppose. You probably don’t want “non-fans” to be admins of anything you’re associated with – right?
2. Now to down to your “New Likes” on your Facebook Fan Page and click the “See All” link. Your fan box is the box in the bottom left portion of the Admin Panel of your page where you see pictures of all your fans. Go ahead and click the “See All” link.
3. Once you click the “See All” link, a new box will appear called “People who like {{company}}”. This will be a screen that has your “fans” images on the left, and now look to the right. You will see the button called “Make Admin”. All you have to do is scroll through your list of fans until you find the person you want to make “admin”, and then simply click “Make Admin”.
4. In some cases you may need to enter that person’s email address. The email address needs to be the address they have for their own personal account access on Facebook.
5. You will then be asked to submit your Facebook Password. This verifies that you know about the changes and are authorizing them. Then click “Confirm”
6. You can change the level of Admin access they have by using the drop-down menu that appears under their name.
7. You can add multiple Admins at the same time by following steps 1-6. Once you have finished adding them click “Save”.

Once you’ve clicked “Save”, that person will receive an email, or message update on their Facebook Profile, that they’ve been added as an admin to your Facebook Fan Page.

In November 2011 the FBI issued a warning to alert computer users of the DNS malware that was infecting millions of computers worldwide with DNSChanger that allowed criminals to hijack legitimate websites and replace them with fraudulent websites, interfering with web browsing and making those computers vulnerable to other types of malicious software.

On March 12, 2012 they obtained a court order authorizing the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) to deploy and maintain temporary clean DNS servers. This was to give computer owners time to clean any affected computers and restore their normal DNS settings.

July 9, 2012 these clean DNS servers will be turned off. Any computers still affected by the DNSChanger malware will lose the Internet connectivity after that time.

Statistics released last month show that almost 70,000 IP addresses within the United States are still affected by this malware. This is down significantly from the numbers at the beginning of the year.

Google announced May 23, 2012 that it would be adding the DNSChanger malware warning which would appear when an infected computer  attempted a search. Some ISPs took their own actions. A few of those actions prevented Google’s warnings from being displayed. Facebook also has been helping to notify users .

You can do your own check to see for DNSChanger infections. DNS Changer Working Group has a quick check. If everything is okay the background will be green. If there are problems you will see a red background.  The McAfee SiteAdvisor takes you to a landing page where you have the opportunity to learn more about the malware. To check all you need to do is click the “Check Now” button.

If you are infected it is recommended you not wait, but seek immediate professional help to clean up your computer. If not cleaned up the internet will be dark come Monday, July 9, 2012.

We recommend that if you need an image for blogs or articles and you do not have the image you want in your media library that you do not just pull one from anywhere on or off the web. There are a number of places around the web where you can download images.

DreamsTime

http://www.dreamstime.com

Dreamstime offers both free images and images for purchase. A free Membership is required to access anything in the site.  There are both watermarked and non-watermarked images. In order to use licensed images you will need to purchase either a credit package or subscription. The costs of these are dependent on the plan chosen.  They have over 13.5 million images.

iStock

http://www.istockphoto.com/

The images of iStock are available for purchase. iStockphoto offers two types of licenses: the complimentary Standard and a set of Extended Licenses to suit your specific needs. A membership allows you to pick from 3 different plans: Pay-as-you-go, Subscription, and Corporate accounts.

BigStock

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

Bigstock is a fast, easy-to-use marketplace for quality stock images. You can pay as you go, buying what you want in the size and format you need when you are ready for it.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

FreeDigitalPhotos.net allows you to to enjoy using their images in almost any project. Their terms apply equally to personal, corporate, educational and charitable use. Images can be used worldwide, with no time limit (in perpetuity). There two types of license for their images – a Standard License and an Extended License. In most cases the Standard License will be sufficient. This license comes in two flavors: “Free” and “Purchased”. The only difference between them is that if you use a free image you must publish an acknowledgement to FreeDigitalPhotos.net on the same page or screen where the image is used. Purchased images do not have this requirement.

 If you use a free image you must publish an acknowledgement to FreeDigitalPhotos.net on the same page or screen where the image is used by placing a hyperlink similar to this. Example HTML for the link: <p>Free images from <a href=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net“>FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>This is mandatory and forms part of the user agreement. If you are unable to publish an acknowledgement, you must purchase the image (from $3).

PublicDomainPictures.net 

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

PublicDomainPictures.net has images that are in public domain.  Pictures may be used for any purpose including commercial. If you are using their images online you do need to hyperlink back to them. There will be a Html link to be used when you download the image. They do note that some photos do require a model or property release and that photos featuring products should be used with care.

 MorgueFile

http://www.morguefile.com
MorgueFile allows you to remix/adapt images as well as use their images for commercial purpose. The nice thing about their images is that you are able to use them without attributing the original author. You are not allowed to sell, distribute, or claim ownership of those images in their original state without the permission of the contributor. You are prohibited from using their work in a stand alone manner.

 
1. What are your campaign goals?
You want to be specific about the outcome you want to achieve otherwise you can lose focus or not know if your campaign is being effective.

2. What is your budget?
It is easy to spend money. Every time someone clicks on your ad you will be paying. A daily/monthly limit should be in place before you start.

3. Who do you want as your audience?
The keywords used in the campaign will draw different groups of people. Determining who those people are and what they need will set the foundation for the keywords targeted in your campaign.

4. Which keywords are you going to use?
Keywords are the single words and phrases people use to search for anything online. Popular keywords can be extremely competitive and tend to be costly. Targeting 3-4 word phrases that are commonly to describe your goods or service can get you higher exposure to your target audience resulting in a better return on investment.

5. Are you going to use geo-targeting?
You can set how wide a geographic location you are targeting from your location.

6. Which pages are you targeting for your visitors to land on?
By tying your PPC campaign to specific landing pages you will be able to determine which campaigns are working for you and where you might need to make adjustments.

7. How will you measure your success?
“If you don’t know where you are going ,how will you know if you’ve arrived?” really explains why this is important. Setting your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will tell you what you need to monitor to determine who well your campaign is working.

8. How are you going to test and improve your campaign over time?
As campaigns age they need to be tweaked. Regularly testing your campaign and improving on its strengths should allow you to see a PPC that gets better over time.

9. How does your PPC campaign relate to and support your other marketing activities?
Best practice is to tie all your marketing together, using your colors, graphics, logos, and tag lines work across lines to convey who you are.

10. How long do you want this campaign to run?
Your budget will in part determine this, but sometimes you only need it to run a short period of time (i.e. if you are promoting an event). Other factors to end a campaign is that you’ve determined that your audience is responding to another medium, a product or service is being discontinued, or it’s time to do something different. Consider your exit strategy, if not at the start definitely as you test your campaign.
Having answers to these questions before you start will save time and energy as you move forward in your PPC campaign.