This resource list for your WordPress website highlights resources I actually use for my clients or myself. There are lots of other good resources; these are just mine.

Domain Name Registrars

Namecheap - This registrar has good prices and customer support. Their management interface is easier to use than most.

Website Hosts

Tiger Technologies - Besides amazing support from company employees, this website hosting company gives refunds for partial months, if you cancel hosting. They have reasonable monthly or yearly prices, support from their own employees (no outsourced support), no CPanel, but a clean, simple interface, one-click WordPress install, shell access, up-to-date PHP, MySQL database access, backups, carbon neutral hosting, free domain name with hosting.

WPEngine - This website host has great WordPress-only hosting; they have managed updates (They update WordPress for you automatically.), daily backups, malware scanning, and staging area for testing.

Continue reading →

Saturday, November 24th is Small Business Saturday®, a day to celebrate and support the local small businesses that boost the economy and help neighborhoods across the country. I encourage you to take a break from online and big box shopping today, and support a local small business. Shop Small® today! I’ll be shopping for gifts for my sisters and sisters-in-law at a small business in my neighborhood today!

Amethyst Website Design is proud to take part in Small Business Saturday. I have discounts on all blog and website design packages of up to 25%. For all the details, you can view my offers here. Discounts are in effect for a full week. They include:

• Basic Blog Package – $325
  Now $255 until Dec. 1 (Save 21%)
• Basic Website Package – $625
  Now $475 until Dec. 1 (Save 24%)
• Custom Websites and Other Services
  Now 24% off until Dec. 1
• Blog or Website Maintenance Package
  Now $90 for 6 hours until Dec. 1 (Save 25%)

~ Marcy
PS. Click to see my offers!

The Jetpack plugin now has a Custom CSS module for you to use to edit your WordPress Website theme. This means that you can customize your website design very easily, and more importantly, safely. Any changes you make here are easy to remove, and your default theme is still intact. Get started with the Jetpack plugin if you don’t have it installed.

Activate the Jetpack Custom CSS Module

In the admin sidebar, click Jetpack. Then scroll down through the Jetpack modules until you see Custom CSS. If you see a blue “Activate” button, click on it to activate the module. If you see the “Learn More,” and “Configure” buttons, this module is already activated. See the image above.

Continue reading →

It’s easy to use Google web fonts in your WordPress website. Google currently has over 500 free fonts in their web fonts library. There are all types from classic to handwritten with lots to choose from in between.

The easiest way to use Google fonts in your WordPress website is to use a plugin. I tried several, but the one I found easiest to use that allowed selection from all the current Google fonts is WP Google Fonts by Adrian Hanft. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, click Plugins, Add New, and search for it. Install and activate it.

Above is a screen shot of the theme changes we’ve been making to the Twenty Ten theme with the Josefin Sans font used for headings. The original Twenty Ten fonts are standard Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica fonts; see the image at the bottom of this post. So let’s get started.

Continue reading →