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Creating a WordPress Child Theme

When building a new WordPress website, no matter what theme you use, you should ALWAYS create a child theme. The child theme is where you add all your customizations for the theme, among other things. If you don’t have a child theme, have made changes to your...

101+ Step WordPress Checklist Copy

This is going to be one of my favorite posts to reference. It’s not one I would sit through and read the entire thing at once, but as these different steps come up while developing a website, it is an excellent guide to follow. A blog post by WPMU DEV: The Most...

The Ultimate Guide to DNS for WordPress

I have had to deal a lot with DNS settings, website transfers, domain transfers, A record changes, MX record changes, and more. I ‘lived and learned’ when it comes to this area; made a lot of mistakes and learned from them all. This next post is a nice...

Taking Over a WordPress Website: The Ultimate Checklist

Often have I been asked to ‘take over’ a website for a client. Getting all the passwords for hosting, domain registrars, CMS, etc. always seems to be the most difficult part. Here’s a list of everything to keep track of from Elegant Themes to help...

8 Best Practices for Perfect CSS Documentation

CSS is a very large part of what I do everyday. Sometimes I’m working on client’s existing sites, sometimes I’m building a new site and writing it from scratch. One thing I’ve gotten a lot better at is adding comments. I didn’t do this a...

8 Part Series from Yoast SEO – Ranking Your Local Business

Yoast put together this 8 part series encompassing a lot of applicable information about optimizing local business websites with links, keywords, search practices, and so much more. This is an excellent reference for anybody working with a local business. An...

How People Make Decisions That Are Bad For Them

A good article about making decisions by Lifehack. Go with your gut, and find a profession that you’re passionate about, not just what is considered the ‘highest paying job.’ You won’t be happy with that, it takes too long for people to figure...

The Power of Deep Thinking: Essence of Creativity

A unique article about thinking deeper, which leads to your brain thinking more creatively, by Lifehack. “When the root is Deep… There is no reason to fear the wind.” A blog post by Lifehack: The Power of Deep Thinking: Essence of Creativity Lifehack’s daily...

20 Photoshop Tricks for Web Designers

Love this list for web designing in Photoshop, wish someone would have told me these things a long time ago. Hope you find these useful. A blog post from Elegant Themes: 20 Photoshop Tricks for Web Designers Elegant Themes continue to make knowledgeable posts, and...

101+ Step WordPress Checklist

This is going to be one of my favorite posts to reference. It’s not one I would sit through and read the entire thing at once, but as these different steps come up while developing a website, it is an excellent guide to follow. A blog post by WPMU DEV: The Most...

The 15 Most Important Productivity Tips

I love this list that Leon Ho, who is the Founder and CEO of Lifehack:, has put together. I printed my own version of this and have it as a reference that I look at every day in the first page of my bullet journal. I hope you will find it as useful as I do. Enjoy. A...

The Best Secret Spots in America’s National Parks

When I can step away from the web design world, I’ve always loved traveling, camping, and spending time outdoors. This is a list of places I plan to reference and hope I can one day have visited each of them. Hope you enjoy too. A blog post from the Thrillist:...

Typography for Web Designers: 5 Things You Need to Know

Being a web designer, I found this post on web typography quite insightful, and a good tool to reference for examples of quality uses of typography on the web. Hope you enjoy as well. A blog post from iThemes: Typography for Web Designers: 5 Things You Need to Know...

The Best Rooftop Bars in the Twin Cities

Here’s a good list I like to reference time and time again when I’m around the twin cities area in Minnesota, which tends to be somewhat frequently. Check these places out for yourselves, particularly in the summer months. A blog post from Thrillist: The...

How to Safely Update Your WordPress Plugins Every Time

Working so much with WordPress, I’ve learned some of these tips from my own experience. I think the most important two here are to test your plugin updates on a staging site and always update your plugins one at a time. I hope this guide helps you manage your...

Best Practices for Long Scrolling

As scrolling becomes more and more popular, with a large part of a that being thanks to the mobile industry, here are some good tips about the most efficient scroll methods when designing your website. A blog post from Adobe: Best Practices for Long Scrolling...

50 Soft Skills for Lifelong Happiness and Success

I’m always looking for inspiration and good advice. This is a great list of things to remember. I wouldn’t expect to remember everything all the time, but it is still a solid list to reference from time to time. A blog post from Lifehack: 50 Soft Skills...

The Best Things To Eat, Drink, and Do in Duluth, MN

This post summarizes a lot of what I’ve been up to since moving to Duluth, MN 9 years ago. I’ve watched Bent Paddle grow from the start, and visited all the spots on the list. Love this city from the food, beer, and people, to all the parks, wildlife, and...

Should Your Website Have Sidebars? What the Research Says

This is a good post on sidebars and whether or not you should include it on your website. In my opinion, it seems like you should only when absolutely necessary, and more often than not, include it on your blog. Don’t put a sidebar on your site just to have a...