CaldwellTowneCentre: Our latest project!

When it comes to building websites, I am passionate about what I do, and, with my new office, comes new websites. This site, CaldwellTowneCentre.com, is my contribution to the community, that is, the community of the Towne Centre, we are several businesses located behind K’s Cafe, on the square, in downtown Caldwell, Texas.

No, there are no fancy office buildings in Caldwell, no high-rises or anything like that, Caldwell is a small community, and if you are in this area, you are familiar with the term, “On the Square”, which means basically, by the Courthouse, the roads that surround it form a square, and on the square is K’s Cafe, we are in that building, and the area where these offices are, is called the Towne Centre. With that explained, this site is a place to showcase these businesses, and if they have a website of their own, to link to that website. So, if you are in our area, come on by and visit!

[screenshotleft url="caldwelltownecentre.com" width="300" height="240"]

BustinLooseHosting is now Live!

We have now completed (all but the fine tuning and content) our Hosting website, BustinLooseHosting.com.You will notice that BustinLooseMedia, BustinLooseHosting, and this site, WildWebDesigner.com, all have the same black brick, background, this has been done for a reason, this brick signifies the barriers that can prevent some small business owners from setting up a quality, dynamic, database driven website, where they can add as many new content containing posts or pages as they desire, thus providing more opportunities for the search engines to bring them even more new customers!

Bustin’ Loose defines my philosophy on what it takes to break free from the old restrictive way of doing things, such as a business that needs to break free from the hassles that operating a website can bring.

While any website can be of some value, a properly designed WordPress based site can offer things that a plane jane, old fashioned .html site cannot. There are many services out there for these “easy” sites, and yes, they are “cheap”, but, you get what you pay for, or, at least you should. With a modern, Web 2.0, dynamic database driven site, that uses a custom .css stylesheet, that makes adding new pages easy, you no longer have to pay a web designer to add each page for you, it is as simple as sending an email, just type, add images, select a category, and hit publish and it is done. A dynamic site also allows for interaction with your sites visitors, they may leave a comment about your products or services, which will encourage later site visitors to do business with you. If you sell products, you can also add this feature to your site and have a new source of sales as well that way, and, with WordPress, you may be able to use a simple plugin, and not even need an expensive shopping cart.

I could go on and on about the benefits of using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS), but, the biggest, and best reasons are in it’s simplicity, affordability, and design, it just works better! Most plugins and themes are free, though donations are encouraged to help further development, and since WordPress is an active Open Source community, the future technologies are sure to be built in.

If you are a small business owner, you need a modern, customizable web-presence that can grow with your business, a Web Designer  and Host that is there for you, and will help you reach your goals, take a look at us, we are on your side and will help you Break Free!

140Gamerz an interesting site for Twitter gamers

Do you play 140 Mafia or any of the other Twitter based games? Maybe you have not heard about them, if not, you are lucky, they are addictive! I recieved a tweet wanting me to join in, and I was curious, so, I took a peek, well, within 3 days I had three accounts playing full blast! I have become a fanatic! I am so struck with this game, I built a website, 140Gamerz.com, dedicated to the gamers that I play with. If you are immune to games, like I thought I was, and you have a Twitter account, check it out! Just click this link and you will be there!

BustinLooseMedia.com: Our new Parent Company!

After all of these years, I have finally decided to try and get paid a little bit for my work, what a concept, right? Now that I have several sites, many dedicated to website design, or promotion, I thought it would be a good time to pull it all together, under one umbrella, so to speak, so, I built another site, and this is the one that my business will be named from, BustinLooseMedia.com.

Where did I get that name, you might ask? Well, it is actually simple, the people that I most often help, are, or were, at one time, small business owners that had no concept of how they could utilize the Internet as another tool, just like a business card or newspaper ad. My goal is to help them Bust Loose from the old, and get into the new! Back when I got started, someone building a website was paid well, like $2,500 for a basic simple static html website, one with more than just a few pages that is. Times have changed, now, you can build a basic static html site, using WYSIWYG and paying a few bucks a month for hosting, but it is very limited as to what you can do.

Now that WordPress has developed into a full CMS tool, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination, and of course, your time, that is where I come in. WildWebDesigner.com builds the sites, and so on. TrafficComplex.com does the traffic promotion, and all of my other sites have the potential for generating revenue with ad space. I have one site, dedicated to the area where I live, the purpose there is to bring businesses that service our area together with those needing their services or products. I know, that sounds a bit like reinventing the wheel, but, it is not, because here in Burleson County, those without computers outnumber those with, but that is changing, so, through BurlesonCountyBusiness.com,  and BustinLooseMedia.com, I am going to Bust this place out of the old and into the new.

Monetizing your Website: How do I choose an Affiliate Program?

Monetizing your site is a matter of preference in my opinion. There are so many different “offers” out there, choosing what works for you is a personal matter. Myself, I hate ads on a website and nothing is uglier than having Google ads splattered all over the place! If you use Google AdSense, they pretty much own that space on your website and they even dictate how you can promote your site, and how many page views is too many and so on. Here is my philosophy on this.

I will only advertise products that I use, and/or that I believe in. There are many different Affiliate Programs out there, and yes, you can sign up with all of them if you want, and to find the products that you use or want to promote, you may have to join multiple programs. One thing to remember is that many people, including me, use ad blocking software, so make sure that you use both text and image links, the text links won’t get blocked.

How do you find them? Well, I could list a few here, but I won’t, why? Because I believe that just signing up with these programs does you no good if you don’t know where to find the product you wish to promote, so, go to the website of that product or company and look for a link that says “Affiliate” or something close, click that link and it will set you up, but be forewarned, many advertisers are picky and may not approve you! I am still waiting on approval from a couple of them now, wish me luck!

Also, remember, when promoting these ads, if you use a traffic exchange, do not put pages that contain ads in your surf rotation, these could be considered a bad thing and get you kicked out, I know Google will drop you in a hurry! So, always be careful!

Now, I am going to list the products that I am affiliated with, yes, if you click the link and purchase something, I will get paid a buck or two, thanks in advance! As I stated before, these are products that I believe in and/or use myself, so I know they are good companies.

The first one, is by far the most important of them all, if you have a computer, and surf the Internet, you need a good anti-virus program! I have used several, and believe me, they are not all the same!
Enjoy $10 Off F-Secure Internet Security: Now only: $49.99

If your current anti-virus software is about to renew, give F-Secure a shot, here is a bonus, unlike the others, you can install F-Secure on up to three computers with just the one license!

Second,if you don’t have a Web Host yet, I use Hostmonster, I have been with them almost a year now, and switched from Yahoo. Yahoo is great for a starter, but it is not good for using WordPress, there are way to many restrictions on file types that you can upload, so, you are limited on what you can do with your site. Yes, this is an affiliate link, and yes, if you signup with Hostmonster I will get paid a few bucks, here is the deal, I will deduct what Hostmonster pays me, if you register your domain with them and hire me to build your site! Is that fair or what?

Maybe you never heard of Hostmonster, they are the same folks as Bluehost , if you prefer, check them out, as far as I know, the only difference is the name.

Take a look at Hostmonster You can even Demo the control panel and see how it works, I have never been so happy as with Hostmonster If I need support, I get a human on the phone quick, and they speak english, I love it!

Just in case you have never heard of TigerDirect.com, below is a banner that will take you there. TigerDirect.com is where I buy everything I may need for my computer, like hard to find stuff for older machines, and they have saved me a lot of money over the years. I have hunted all over the Internet for better prices, but there are none and the service is fantastic, my orders have been shipped and delivered as fast or faster than anything I have ever ordered online, this is definitely a company that I use and trust!

Just in case you need business cards, a very useful tool to promote your website, I use Overnight Prints for mine, they are the best I found on the web, as far as quality and price, you can’t beat them!

I hope that this information is helpful, if you need any of these products, check them out, I know you won’t be disappointed and maybe I’ll make a buck or two!

When you look at a Website, what do you see? Value, Budget, Functionality?

Often there is a habit, myself included, that the first impression of a website, is determined by a pretty picture or flashy display of some sort, but that is not what counts!

What counts is the functionality, ease of navigation, and of course, the quality of the product being sold.

If I am looking for toothpaste, I want to find toothpaste, but, if I am looking for advice on using toothpaste, well, you get the point.

Every website is as different as the website owner, or it should be. When you hire someone to build a website, there are many things to consider, besides cost. Even a FREE website is worthless if both the designer and the owner do not communicate properly, and that is the biggest problem for both parties. Why?

The designer wants to build the best site they can, but, they are often hindered by what the website or domain owner wants  to spend. Hey, enough money can get you the Mona Lisa, but who can afford that?

So, look at the value, what can the designer offer? What is the potential return? What is your budget? Will the site work? Once you put all of these things together, you are just getting started!

What are you plans for the website, now, and later? Can it grow with your business? Does the designer charge for each new page? What will your involvement be? Will you work to make the website better? Will you post new information about your products and company yourself? There are so many questions that you need to ask.

At this point in time, WordPress, no longer just a personnal blog, but a complete Content Management Solution, WordPress has so many plugins and such available, that it can be customized to do so many things! If you are a small business owner, that will tell people about your products, and get involved with your website, I can help you! If you know yur way around the web, you can do it your self, but, this is what I do, I can help you, and guess what, I work cheap! In some cases FREE, since this is my hobby.

If you would like more information, use the contact form, just tell me what you need, maybe I can help? If you are just starting out, and have an idea, bounce it off me, I have seen just about all of the stuff that works and doesn’t, just avoid the scams, drop me a note, I am here to help!

Recent Projects: TrafficComplex.com, if you need traffic to your website, this is the place!

Are you a webmaster in need of traffic to your website?

There are many things that you need to do to get your rankings up, and one is increase traffic, this shows your site is more important than a site that gets no traffic, it is that simple

Google and the other search engines rank your pages according to relevance to the keywords on your site, one way that it becomes apparent is of course what people are actually searching for, once your pages get indexed, and the spiders crawl your site a few gazillion times, they then rate it, if you have more traffic, the better your site looks!

If you want to learn more about how a traffic exchange works just do a little research, and you can start here at TrafficComplex.com, just know this, if you have a Google Adsense account, DO NOT join a traffic exchange, they will drop you, and I mean fast!

High Fuel Prices: Do bad things ever cause good things?

First off, I want to tell you that the high cost of fuel, primarily gasoline, but also propane, and the natural gas used to make electricity, are putting a hurt on me!

I have a pickup that I now drive only twice a week, just to haul off the trash, and to visit a buddy down the street! Why? well, I also have a car, a little one that is good on gas! Here is the biggie, I am now spending about 75 bucks on gasoline a month, just on that truck, the car, which takes me everywhere else, I am spending about $160 a month! I have another buddy spending like $350, so yes, we all feel that, but….

Something that I have had to do a lot of in the past, just because I live in the sticks, is order what I need online! Yes, shipping has gone up, but it beats driving across the country!

If there is anything at all positive in this, it is that business owners with websites, have an advantage over those that don’t. This world wide web can offer opportunities to those that use it, and use it wisely. I’m not saying that every Mom and Pop should go crazy getting a website, but, for those that need an advantage in competitive markets, the Internet can be a major tool.

As you have seen, my nickname is CarpetGuy, why? I am a flooring consultant. As we speak, I have a couple of flooring sites that are about to be completely overhauled! These two sites are in the very first group of sites that I built, so it is just time anyway, but, I have already noticed more traffic, and contacts from the websites. This tells me that instead of driving around looking for flooring, people are shopping on the Internet! Now is the time to make these sites stand out so that when the people finish looking on the web, and get in their car to go get a closer look, I will have a better chance of getting that customer!

Now is a good time to get a Web Presence, even if it is just a basic site with your business info and phone number, if it is set up right, it can help you, especially if you are in an industry that has avoided getting a website in the past. If you need a tip or two, just keep checking out this site, or use the contact us form and drop me a note, maybe I can help?

WildWebDesigner: Site updates and Changes, the Pirates are gone!

You may nave noticed that WildWebDesigner has changed, and yes, there are 2 blogs! The old WildWebDesigner.com/blog/ is not going anywhere, this blog is for the articles and such written by others, that some may still find useful, but, the main site, WildWebDesigner.com, will be the focal point of this domain. The sample sites are all gone, well almost all, there is actually a site I built to help out a buddy, that is still part of this domain, Kenny’s Small Engine Repair, and a Blog for Kenny’s as well, this is kind of how it all got started here.

In the beginning, I had all of my sites hosted with Yahoo, and, for the beginner, that is definitely the way to go, but, as times have changed, and the days of the old “Static” website are over! Yes, Yahoo’s Sitebuilder is the easiest of it’s kind and very functional, allowing you to do things that others won’t, I miss using it for simple pages that will always be needed for some things, and yes, you can install a WordPress Blog in the root of your domain with Yahoo, but, Yahoo is very restrictive on what they allow, so modifying that site gets problematic, and, that is what I do, so, by by Yahoo!

There could be some confusion right now, I hope to clear that all up. When this site was first put together, the main focus was on helping DIY webmasters to get the job done, therefore, I had samples of the various things that one could do when building a website. Yes, that was a mistake, I had an old phpBB 2.3 forum, now I know why that has been replaced by 3.0!

This forum got hijacked, by Pirates! Since it was completely empty, only the sample post that is created when installing the new board, I never expected anyone to even look at it, but I was sure wrong!

As I was deleting the pages that I didn’t want to use anymore, the samples had to go, and while determining which database went to those samples, I noticed that the one for this old forum was huge! I’ll put it this way, I have a lot of Domains on my host’s server, and when I removed that database, the amount of space I was using, got practically cut in half! I had to see why, so I went to that site, I almost fainted! I logged in to the admin area and it had almost 40,000 members and like 78,600 posts! While looking at the admin control panel, I saw that there were over 200 people logging in at that moment! I didn’t even try to see what all of the posts were, but let me put it this way,the nicest ones were SPAM! Needless to say, that kind of stuff is definitely not what this site, or any of my sites is about, so, I deleted that mess as fast as I could!

I used to have a lot of problems with SPAMMERS on my old phpBB boards, but nothing like that! Even though it is gone, I am still getting hundreds of visitors that are obviously still looking for that mess, sorry folks, you have to go someplace else for that now! The reason I am telling you about this, is that if you have an old phpBB Message board, UPGRADE IT!

If you accidentally stumbled across that mess and were as shocked as I was, I am sorry I didn’t find it sooner, but I had no idea that it was happening!

Recent Projects: PattiMace.com, your choice for Real Estate in the Houston area!

This is one of my favorite sites, since the release of WordPress 2.5, things haven’t been the same. There are so many plugins available to turn a simple Blog into just about anything you want.

Why would you want to do that, you may ask? Affordability is one answer, go take a peek at this site, PattiMace.com, it uses a real estate plugin that allows you to post home listings, and even creates an .xml file for an RSS feed, that can be used to add your listings feed to Google Base and others, so that your listings are available in places like Google Real estate! That will increase the visibility and make it easier for people to find you!

This is the main reason for using the WordPress format, which is highly customizable, through themes and plugins, to get your pages picked up by the search engines! After all, having a website that nobody sees is a waste of server space!

You might wonder why I would tell the world about how easy it is to build a Real Estate website? That is clear, there are way too many “professional” website designers out there, that are just too expensive for the average real estate agent to use, so, they try to do something themselves, or get into expensive hosting contracts that are not always in their best interest. It isn’t that these designers are bad, they just are too expensive for a small business to use. Large real estate brokerages can do this, and rightly so, take a look at the Houston Association of Realtors website (HAR), this is where the properties are listed with MLS, and is a wonderful site, but, as an agent, or even a small brokerage, building something like this is way out of reach.

So, an agent needs a way to stand out, this is Patti’s page at HAR, you would never find her, unless she was to get extremely lucky and someone was to find her using HAR’s Member Finder, in other words, a needle in a haystack! By having her own site, that is also functional, and very visible, she can have the clients find her, and avoid that luck of the draw search process, do you know how many real estate agents there are in Houston?

Using the Wordress Blog, she can write useful posts that help people, even if they have no interest in buying a home in her area! The more she writes, the more her sites page rank will grow, the better that page rank gets, more people will be able to find her even easier.

Helping people, what a concept? I live by the philosophy that “if you help enough people get what they want or need, you will in turn, get what you want or need”, this is the purpose of this site, helping people get a website that will work for them, and be affordable for just about anyone.

For anyone that finds this post, and is looking to relocate to the Houston area, or just wanting to buy or sell a home in the Houston area, I can tell you this, Patti is a dedicated agent, and having a real estate agent that is dedicated to helping you, is a very important thing! So, take a peek at her site, send her an email, and let her help you.

If you are a real estate agent, or anyone needing an affordable website, drop me a note, and I will either build you a website, or help you to build your own.