WordPress Fix: Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance. Check Back In a Minute

How to, Web Development, WordPress

Have you ever come across this error message after updating a few things in your WordPress Dashboard?

Briefly unavailableWell don’t panic, there is an easy way to clear this, and get your website back online.

First you need to launch your FTP application. Some use FileZilla or maybe even Dreamweaver. Either works fine, or you can use your hosting providers File Manager to access your server files. Once logged in and you can view your files on the remote server, you’ll need to navigate to the root directory of your website.

Once there scroll up and look for the .maintenance file. It won’t have an extension.

Maintenance

I highlighted the file in red. You’ll just need to click that and choose a delete option to remove it from your server. Once removed navigate back to your website and refresh your page. You should be able to get back to your WordPress Dashboard like normal.

NexGen Gallery: Version Downgrading

How to, WordPress

When WordPress 3.6 came out a few weeks ago, there were a lot of plugins that also made their own coding upgrades. While most were good and seamless one in-particular didn’t fair so well with older versions. Here at Design Theory, we had a few client websites using some older (pre NexGen v2.+) that were working just fine until we updated WordPress to 3.6 and then we either received error messages or the galleries weren’t showing up at all.

Error Messages:

Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 58458112) (tried to allocate 16 bytes) in …/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/pope/lib/class.extensibleobject.php on line 1291

or

‘Error 404 – page not found’

While the galleries were intact when you log into the Dashboard and view or manage the galleries, the photos and settings all still there, they just weren’t displaying at all or displayed errors on the site. We created the video below to show you how to easily restore your plugin version back to 1.9.13 and get back your gallery views.

Instructions

  • Visit the NexGen plugin site here, then download either your previous version (prior to your upgrade) or select the 1.9.13.
  • Download and unzip the folder on your computer.
  • Select all the files from the unzipped folder and copy them
  • Navigate to your WordPress site files on your computer (Documents/YourWebsite/WP-Content/Plugins/Nexgen-Gallery)
  • Paste the files into this folder/directory. Yes you must overwrite the existing files
  • Upload that folder (Documents/YourWebsite/WP-Content/Plugins/Nexgen-Gallery) back to your host/server via FTP.

How to add a custom sidebar (Widget Area) to your WordPress Website

How to, Web Design, Web Development, WordPress

Do you have a WordPress website where each page has the same content in your sidebar? Have you ever wanted to have different content from page to page, but not sure how to do it? Well this post is for you.

Woo Themes has a really simple plugin that will allow you to create your own custom sidebars or widget areas for your website. You’ll be able to name each widget area whatever you like, and even assign it to your already created pages. See the video for a quick walk-through on installing the plugin and configuring a widget area.

Want to get a copy of this plugin to download now; follow this link to the WordPress repository and get your copy today. Oh and be sure to give a shout out to the guys at Woo Themes for making our lives easier!

Because You Have Better Things To Do Other Than Blog

All Posts, Blog, Content & Copywriting, How to, WordPress

We’ve talked a lot about people making a shift from micro-blogging to real blogging of the past few years. For us here at Design Theory I think it’s an awesome shift in acknowledgement in a fantastic medium. The main reason why this is great is because we now have so much great content online about almost any thing you can think of. From a business prospective, blogging is continuing to place smaller businesses ahead of their bigger competitors because of their rich content being read and shared by many.

That’s all fine and dandy, but what about all the other “more importing” things you are trying to keep a focus on in your business?  What I’d like to do is sympathize with you because I feel your pain. You want to be out there, you want more people to know about your products and services, but to take the time to write something special about them every once in a while is just not in you schedule.

Well let me first explain that blogging is a great free way to advertise about your business. Not to say that all your posts need to be just about your business, they do need to be informative and offer ways to solve problems for people in your industry. But while you’re explaining the how to’s, instructions, and shortcuts, your readers are engaged and that’s the best time to offer them to seek your products and services that do just what they’re looking for.

The use of social media helps to push your posts out to areas and people who you normally wouldn’t have direct access to.  I shouldn’t have to explain more on this as by now you should understand how this can snowball from a post to a tweet, to a comment, to a share, to a forum, to Google search, and more.

So time right, that’s usually the biggest issue. I’m here to offer you a free Blog Editorial Calendar. An editorial calendar is basically a really easy way to control the content being published from your website. If you sometimes get ideas on things you want to write but don’t have time to write them, jot them down on this calendar and when time comes for you to write you’ll be able to pick up where you’re initial thought started. Fill out the form below to get your free custom copy of our editorial calendar that you can easily edit in Microsoft Excel to use for your own media.

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5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bother With Social Media

All Posts, How to, Social Media

This may come as a shock but, what I’m about to lay out is very much true. Not everyone should be getting involved in social media. I’m not saying this to be mean, however I am going to shed some light for those who may be thinking of using social media in their business, but don’t really want to invest in doing it right.

Here at Design Theory, we use a LOT of social networks, apps, tools, and more to reach our audience. Through time we’ve learned what works for us, what to spend most time on for better feedback, and what networks may not be worth much effort for the target audience we want. How can you learn some of these things? A lot of trial and effort. If you’re not in it for the long haul, here are some reasons why you may not want to start.

You May Not Really Have Time

This is a classic and very human reason why not to get involved. You’re a business owner or freelancer. You’re already focusing on so much to get your business off the ground, legal paperwork, contracts, advertising. Though all of these can be helped or you can find help through social media, but we won’t go there right now. Thing is, it will eat up your day. When’s the last time you went on Facebook and spent less than 5 minutes on the site? Checking friends status updates, funny videos, wishing friends happy birthday. Well imagine spending about 10-15 minutes on at least 5 networks once or twice a day. Oh it adds up very quickly. Why do you need to spend that much time? Well because each network has users that are on it for a certain time. Finding the right time of day to post is crucial for your engagement. And you’ll also want to be available to respond whenever you get a tweet or post or message. Strike while the iron is hot to lead your visitors and followers back to your site to sell them on something.

You Think You Can Automate Everything

If there was one single app or service that could take what you’re thinking and edit it down to 140 characters, or create a cool viral video that gets shared among millions instantly, I’d be rich because I would develop it. So no one stop shop maybe, but there are social media agencies all around that if you spend time with them and allow them to get to know you and your business they’d be able to be effective at this for you and your brand. But that would cost some serious money to be done right. I don’t want you to fall for the social apps that let you post everywhere at once with the same message. Think about it; the people who follow you on Pinterest want to see pictures and video and not much text. Twitter followers are going to be looking at what you type, maybe a link to find more info or download something for free (and that’s if they see your tweet among the hundreds in their timeline). We all know Facebook posts that have pictures and video get much more attention than just text-only posts. And the biggest issue, what time you post to what network.

You Think It’s All About You

Unless you’re an already established brand, people aren’t going to be super interested in just you or your business. This interest is something you’ll have to sow, water, and grow (if you get what I mean). Chances are there are already known name brands that dominate your industry that your audience is quite familiar with. Its going to be an up hill battle for you to break in and make a name for yourself. Having a good client/customer base will be crucial at the beginning, and making them your “superfans” will be just as crucial to your social engagement. Your potential audience is going to be interested more in what you can do for them (free first then paid) than about who you actually are at first. Spend more time offering great tips and help on your industry and services and less time trying to sell directly.

You Just Want To Sell, Sell, Sell

Speaking of selling, don’t even bother. Well unless you have a hot product that people absolutely love and you’re having a tough time keeping them in stock, try not to start into social media with an “I must sell” agenda. Most people using social media networks have figured out how to ignore or parse ads from their normal view. Facebook realized this, and they’ve moved to incorporating sponsored and suggested posts in the mix of your news feed. Why? Because they noticed how people were totally ignoring the right side of their Facebook screen because that’s where the ads always were everywhere they go on Facebook. Try to talk more about differences in available products, why your products are actually better than the leading competition, ways your products may save money or time, and how your products or services actually are awesome.

You Anticipate Huge Results Immediately

If you’re thinking that for every tweet you’re going to get 20 new followers, or for every new Facebook post you’re going to have 10 reply comments, or for each board you create on Pinterest you’re going to get 50 new re-pins and followers, or each video you post on YouTube will go viral in a few hours, please walk away now. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no secret formula to what actually becomes viral. And results like that are quite seldom. Even for those that are able to go viral, its more rare for them to do it again. It is going to take some time to develop your audience and following. Regardless of what network it is. I have 500+ connections on Linked In, but I don’t get 500+ likes to ever single discussion I post. It takes genuine content, posted at the opportune times when engagement is most likely for each individual network. And yes social media can be tracked, but no you’re probably not going to get two dollars for every dollar you invest in it.

Agree with me or disagree, I’d still like to hear your thoughts. Lets discuss in the comments below.

Image Credit: GraphicsFuel (download them for free!)

How To: Add A Menu To Your WordPress Theme

All Posts, How to, Web Development, WordPress

Have you ever installed a new WordPress theme that didn’t have native support for creating and selecting custom menu (navigation bar). Now before you jump in be sure to either do a backup of your files, or as you get to the Functions.php and Header.php files copy the original code to a text editor before you modify it. Once you’ve done these preventative “CYA” measures follow these steps below:

From your Dashboard menu, go to Appearance > Edit and add the code below to the theme’s functions.php file: (in some cases I’ve seen this called “Theme Options” just above where it says “functions.php”. This is the same thing.)

You can add this code below towards the bottom of your page code so that you can easily find it later should you need to reference it.

add_theme_support( ‘menus’ );

(you may need to add this on the next line if you get to the end and your menu doesn’t show up:

add_action( ‘init’, ‘register_my_menus’ );

function register_my_menus() {
register_nav_menus(
array(
‘menu-1’ => __( ‘Menu 1’ ),
)
);
}

User your browser’s Find feature and search for this code in your theme’s Header.php file:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1’); ?>

Highlight this string of code and replace it with this code below:

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( ‘sort_column’ => ‘menu_order’, ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’ ) ); ?>

Lastly click on Appearance then Menus and you should be able to create a custom menu.