Blog



Tri-Gold Associates

Posted by Ryan on Jan 23, 2010 in Portfolio | 0 comments

Tri-Gold Associates is a leading office supplies manufacturer rep company serving the Southeast US. Tri-Gold was looking to move to a content management system that allowed them to more easily manage and update their site. Along with this, Tri-Gold was looking to give the site a clean, professional re-design.

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Redemption Hill

Posted by Ryan on Jan 23, 2010 in Portfolio | 0 comments

Redemption Hill

The site we built for Redemption Hill, a church in Richmond VA, is one of the most beautiful sites that Design Simple has ever had the opportunity to work on. Working with Redemption Hill’s graphic designer, we were able to create a highly customized website that both utilizes the wordpress CMS and integrates with the church’s membership management software.

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Audio Repair Notes

Posted by Ryan on Jan 21, 2010 in Portfolio | 0 comments

With craigslist.org as the main reference site, the client wanted to create a place to sell his custom audio repair notes. Specific attention was paid to auto-population of the home page and sidebar navigation, giving ease to the addition of new inventory. This project also involved the integration of the e-junkie commerce engine.

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Fixing your audio equipment

Posted by Ryan on Jan 9, 2010 in Company News | 0 comments

I was recently asked by a client to build a e-commerce site. The client sells notes that give guitar and hi-fi repair help and he had some specific goals for the site. He wanted it to be very clean an minimal. He sited craigslist.org as an example site. He wanted a home page that displayed all the notes he had for sale. He wanted the site to be populated automatically whenever he added a new product. This meant the homepage and the sidebar navigation needed to pull in new items whenever they were added. He wanted to use the e-junkie commerce...

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They like me. They really like me…

Posted by Ryan on Dec 12, 2009 in Company News | 0 comments

It is always nice to hear that your clients are happy with your work. I thought I share a few of the reviews that my recent clients gave on my freelance profile at Guru.com. Ryan was FABULOUS – we will absolutely be working with him on future projects! His part of the Iso-Tip site was done in a matter of DAYS, he was incredibly easy to get a hold of, provided insightful recommendations, updated the site until we were 100% satisfied with it and educated us on how to use WordPress to edit the site. Couldn’t have asked for a better...

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Protecting Your WordPress Install

Posted by Ryan on Nov 22, 2009 in Company News | 1 comment

I recently had 6 of my wordpress sites hacked. And, yes, it is as horrible as it sounds. Since WordPress is all we use at Design Simple, I thought I’d pass along a couple good places for you to visit when securing your WordPress installs. First, read this post. Alex lays out 10 very easy steps you can take to sure up your install. In Alex’s post, he mentions (#1) using the WP Security Scan plugin. While I liked this plugin, I wasn’t able to rename the prefixes of my DB with it. So, you might also want to check out the Table...

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Setting Default Index Page Using .htaccess File

Posted by Ryan on Oct 3, 2009 in Company News | 0 comments

Sometimes you may want to have a different page be the default index page for your site. This is particularly helpful when setting up a WordPress install that you want to work on, but aren’t ready to bring live to your site visitors. Simply go into your .htaccss file and add the follow line of code: DirectoryIndex index.html index.php Now, upload an index.html file to your server and everyone who visits your base URL will be served the HTML page. If you want to see your WP install, simple append /index.php to then end of your base URL....

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Ryan Burns Me

Posted by Ryan on Oct 3, 2009 in Company News | 0 comments

I have a lot of websites. One problem I often face is when commenting on people’s blog, what website do I link to? Do I send them to Design Simple because I think they might be interested in hiring me? Do I send them to Going to Seminary because they are seminary student? Do I send them to my Twitter or Facebook account because they are socially connected? On top of that, linking to multiple sites simply waters down my SEO juice for my name, Ryan Burns. Well, inspired by John Saddington, I decided to setup an online business card. As...

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WordPress Under Attack

Posted by Ryan on Sep 5, 2009 in Company News | 0 comments

I build all my sites on WordPress. Therefore, today’s news that older versions of WP are under attack is pretty important. If you’re running an older version of WP (2.8.4 is the most up-to-date) then please upgrade today. Here are two important notes from Lorelle’s post: 1. UPDATE NOW! Reports are that this attack impacts ALL versions of WordPress up to 2.8.4, the most recent release. … 5. Fear of Upgrading: This attack is serious enough to overcome all your fears of updating. If older WordPress Plugins are holding you...

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Making Money Online

Posted by Ryan on Aug 16, 2009 in Company News | 0 comments

Over the last couple years I’ve been trying to find different ways to make money online, besides doing web development. While I haven’t struck it rich, I have found a number of ways to make money and have managed to bring in about $200-$400 a month through various outlets. I decided the other day that it was time to start a blog to help pass along the tips and tricks I’ve learned. If you’d like to find some ways to earn a couple hundred bucks a month and are tired of lame websites that promise to make you rich from...

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