Blog entries

Just can't stop

Ed Peterson — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:09:25 +0100

Well it seems like I just can't stop building websites. Whether it is for others or for myself, I just can't leave web programming alone. What can I say, I'm still hooked.

So if you are looking for a good website, then drop me a line. I'm looking for some new projects. I'm building with Joomla 1.7 now, so everything is the latest and the greatest.

Winding Down

Ed Peterson — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:05:07 +0100

It is with some regret that I write this post. I have enjoyed building websites for a number of years, and I really enjoyed expressing my creativity for me clients through the website I built for them.

I have decided to not take on any new web-development projects at this time. Other business interests are using up all of my available time, so I cannot take on any new work. I will continue to host and support my current and past clients.

Thank you for your support and allowing mRead More...

Woops!

Ed Peterson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:03:31 +0100

Sorry to all that tried to access my site lately. I was doing a few updates and forgot to put up my update notice, so if you tried to access my site over the last couple of days and got an error, I do apologize. (I`ve got to watch those late night programming binges ;-)

What's New

Ed Peterson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:48:00 +0100

You may have noticed that I haven't posted here in a while. I have been studying up on Joomla 1.5 so that I can upgrade some of my modules (as requested) as well as write a few new ones, for upcoming projects.

International web development has continued to grow, which has also occupied more of my time, but I seem to have gotten it under control for the end of the year, so I am looking forward to attacking the new projects.

Stay tuned...

Taking a break

Ed Peterson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:47:11 +0100

I have been busy, so I haven't posted anything for a couple of days, and it shows. My quest to be ranked number one under the search phrase best web designer in Canada has suffered because of it. Also it seems that my new blogs have not been crawled, so I will link to them here, and hopefully get the searched.

Blogger
WordPress
Blog.ca
SocialGo
LiveJournal
Blog.com

Why Joomla #7 – Menu Management

Ed Peterson — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:39:32 +0100

I have briefly touched on menus and menu management in my article Why Joomla #4 – Content and Menu Management, but today I wanted to look further into Joomla's built in menu management features.

New menus can be created and placed in most module positions. This typically allows menus to be placed at the top of the page, bottom of the page, inside of the header, and within the left and right columns. Template designers and web designers have also begun placing page specific menus Read More...

Why Joomla #6 – Link Management

Ed Peterson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:32:20 +0100

The Joomla CMS provides a built in link management component that allows you to add links to external websites and a description of the website. These links can be sorted into categories for easy navigation by site users.

Menu items setup to the link section, will display a list of categories, with the number of links in each category automatically displayed beside the category title
Selecting a category title will display all the links in that category, with the link description oRead More...

Why Joomla #5 – Contact Management

Ed Peterson — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:47:11 +0100

Today I will look at the Joomla CMS built in contact management component.

Joomla includes the ability to list contact information on the site. The website owner/manager can determine what information will be displayed, when entered. The basic contact information that can be gathered and displayed for a contact includes: address, city, state, zip, phone, fax, mobile, email address, description, image or avatar per contact. Contacts may be grouped into categories, and then the categoriRead More...

Why Joomla #4 - Content & Menu Management

Ed Peterson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:02:35 +0100

Today I added a new blog on SocialGo.com where I continued my quest to be the first search result under the phrase the "best web designer in Canada", through a discussion of why I feel Joomla is the best CMS to base a website on. I also opened a discussion forum on the site to allow readers to post their thoughts about my quest, as well as ideas that I could test to improve phrase rank search results.

Today I want to look at content management on a Joomla CMS site.

In Joomla 1.5 Read More...

Why Joomla #3 - Extensions

Ed Peterson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:22:18 +0100

Although I fell off posting to my blogs for a few days, my quest to be listed #1 as the “best web designer in Canada” continued in my absence. I am really happy to announce that I have broken onto the first page of Google search results, and have remained in the number 8 position for the last 2 days!

Unfortunately, 2 of my blogs were shut down by their operators as simply being SEO link sources, so I guess to them the information I am discussing is of no value.

Today I wanted Read More...

Why Joomla #2 - User Management

Ed Peterson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:24:04 +0100

My quest to rank #1 under the search phrase the “best web designer in Canada” continues. Today I will continue my discussion of why I think that the Joomla CMS is the best platform upon which to build your website on.

User management. Website users are grouped into visitors or registered users. The Joomla CMS includes a complete user registration function, that collects and stores registration information, manages user names and passwords, including lost password functioRead More...

Why Joomla #1 - Open Source

Ed Peterson — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:50:56 +0100

As I continue my quest to be the number one search result for the phrase the “best web designer in Canada”, I realized that I had not explained why I build websites using the Joomla content management system (CMS). In my opinion, the Joomla CMS is the best option for today's website for many reasons. I will try and touch on as many as possible over the next few days.

There are over 3,000 programmers actively developing Joomla worldwide. This is more manpower than any commRead More...

Joomla templates

Ed Peterson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:15:12 +0100

Well today I am stuck again at the 11th spot in the search results for the “best web designer in Canada”. My initial reaction was disappointment, but this turned around, once I noticed that the previous 10 are the same, and I am still the 11th. Now that I have knocked out 132, 999,989 sites/pages to get here, I am happy to still be here. This is especially so, as I have passed many other “SEO specialty companies” to get here. I may just need to do some more research anRead More...

Website templates

Ed Peterson — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:41:04 +0100

Well, today I maintained my spot in the 11th result under the search phrase the “best web designer in Canada”. Although I didn't advance, the fact that I remained the same makes me very happy.

Yesterday I started a hub on HubPages, to add to my blogs on Blogger, Wordpress, Blog.ca and TheSignWorx. This should add another set of links to help build my ranking.

To continue yesterday's blog, let's look at what I do to build a Joomla CMS based website.

Depending oRead More...

Consistency pays

Ed Peterson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:11:58 +0100

Well, after ensuring that I continue to post regularly, I am climbing the ladder, so to speak, on my quest to be ranked #1 under the search phrase “best web designer in Canada”.

I hit spot #11 this morning, although I am still on page 2 of the search results, still not bad I think given that just 2 weeks ago I wasn't listed in the top 1,000 results.

To further my current blog discussion on website design, today I will discuss customizing Joomla CMS based sites.

I Joomla therefore I am...

Ed Peterson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:54:48 +0100

What makes me the “best web designer in Canada”? I build websites using the Joomla CMS. There are a constantly growing number of reasons to use the Joomla CMS to build a website, so what I will do is capture a few of my current favorites here:

Joomla is open-source, so it is free,

Joomla is written in PHP and uses MySQL for data storage, which means it can run on almost everything,

Joomla has been around since 2007, has been downloaded millions of timesaRead More...

Blog's future

Ed Peterson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:09:15 +0100

I like to build. Whether it is websites, or backyards. I like to create things in my mind and then build it with my hands. At the end of the work day, I like to be able to look at what I have accomplished. Sometimes while reviewing what I did, I realize that I could have done it better, and that often results in me doing it over (I am a perfectionist at heart, and if I think of a better way, I just have to do it that way).

As I have matured, I find myself taking more time, contemplatinRead More...

Too many options!

Ed Peterson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:02:44 +0100

Life presents just too many opportunities for me to succeed really well in just one. My quest to become ranked #1 under the search phrase "best web designer in Canada" is fading as I climb the ladder. Today I am back to #13. This is great, but researching ways to improve my ranking, just shows me more really great and interesting things I could be doing as well. I know from past experiences that this will eventually cause me to drop this current quest, in the face of a new challenge.

SRead More...

Blog again, off again

Ed Peterson — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:12:08 +0100

Well I blogged here for a couple of days, then great weather drew me back outside. Last night I was corresponding with clients and working on a couple of website fixes, so I didn't post a new blog. Today I see that I am back in number 15 position for the search phrase "best web designer in Canada". I am assuming that this is because of my blogging efforts after the weekend, as opposed to my lack of blog yesterday.

I need another strategy to implement, that will draw more interest in myRead More...

Too nice to program

Ed Peterson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:45:31 +0100

Well, day two after attempting to comeback from falling out of the 13th position on the search results for the “best web designer in Canada” quest, and I’m not in the top 100. This despite my continued blogging on 3 different sites.

I have been reading off and on about some other designers and SEO specialists blog journals about their attempts to quickly get a site listed under a phrase, but I haven’t stopped to finish reading or implement anything they have saiRead More...