I created BK2K Web Design in the late 90s, and it’s undergone many a transformation over the years. This time the look won’t change (at least not at this point) but circumstances have. I no longer code for a living as I am pretty much housebound at this point due to illness - but BK2K Web Design will remain open, and I will continue to release free WordPress themes and offer help to newbie webmasters.

Over the next week or so, content will be changed around, sections removed and sections added. As always I will be around - here or at RoseCityGardens.com - and will continue to add content of interest to readers. I intend to reopen the web development jobs section, with daily posts on the opportunities that I find on the Internet, and possibly add an aStore and custom Google search engine.

Thank you for coming to BK2K Web Design - I hope it will be the first of many visits!

I still have fluff pages to create but for all practical purposes, we are open for business! Tonight I’ll add the rest of the content, and tomorrow I’ll sign into live help at 7:00 a.m.

Rose City Gardens is almost done too - same deal, I have to add the fluff. I wish I were rich and could hire content writers, and just stay buried in the code all day (what BLISS that would be) but since most users actually read what’s on a site rather than what’s under it, I must force myself to put on my author’s cap and get busy.

Please feel free to comment on the new designs, both here and at Rose City Gardens.

I am getting closer to the final stretch - right now all that’s left to do is fluff pages and forms.

WordPress 2.5 is awesome so far - but there’s a very annoying bug - it won’t let me upload media through the media library. The nice thing is that Next-Gen gallery does work on 2.5 and the new version is very nice! I can insert images from the gallery into posts.

Still not sure when bbPress will upgrade to work with 2.5, or when 2.5 will be officially released. I’ve installed SimplePress forum (see http://www.bk2k.com/sf-forum/) in the meantime, but haven’t yet decided if I’m going to use it. I need some sort of support ticket application, and while a forum would work, if I find a really nice standalone app that uses clean markup and is easy to skin, I’ll go for it.

Or, bbPress will be awesome and there will be no question as to which road I’ll take!

It will probably be another week to 10 days before I launch - but there’s definitely a visible light at the end of the tunnel!

I’ve finished the templating (although there are always bugs lurking about) and was going to start reinstalling plugins BUT….

I downloaded and installed Wordpress 2.5 RC1 on my dev server, and it’s AWESOME! So far it works like a charm, with a much prettier and well-organized backend. The only downside is the ability to drag and drop widgets into your sidebar(s) is gone, replaced with selection boxes on the interface. I’m sure they had their reasons, and I’m sure I’ll get used to it. But I digress!

At this point I’m not going to add any more plugins until I upgrade this site to 2.5 - most of the old posts in the category “WordPress Plugins” are going bye-bye, as are the way-expired posts in the Jobs category, and various other cleanup. From what I hear, 2.5 is ready for production; they’re just holding out for a little more feedback.

I’m aware that the links at the top lead to pages without content - this will be remedied soon!

In the meantime, If you desperately need a designer, please fill out the quote request form at http://bk2k.com/quote-request-form.html.

Hey! What happened?

I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress, that’s what - which whacked the skin and many of the plugins I had installed.

It’s time for me to get out my virtual toothbrush and clean in all the corners, which means that a lot of old garbage is out - and a new, fresh template is in!

Stay tuned for a new BK2K!

I was just viewing the source of the home page, and realized I need to get out the virtual toothbrush and start cleaning house. There are a lot of linked scripts and plugin code, and the order of the content isn’t optimal for SEO. And it’s been so long since I’ve validated at W3 that I’m sure there are little HTML bugs lurking about….

In light of all this, BK2K Web Design is going to get an overhaul! I’m keeping the tulip but stripping out most of the plugins and moving them to my testing/development blog, and cleaning up errors.

Stay tuned….

NOTE - This plugin was uninstalled - sorry for the inconvenience.

Our latest WordPress plugin is the WP-eCommerce plugin by Instinct Entertainment. The Lite version is free, and is just the ticket if you want to sell products on your blog.

To see the plugin in action, click the ink in the menu bar. It’s very vanilla right now, but you can upgrade the cart and get more features for a nominal fee. I’ll be adding products - gemstones - and if you like precious and semi-precious gems, feel free to purchase them from me at a greatly reduced price!

This is just one example of what you can achieve with WordPress - like they say, WordPress is “infinitely extensible”. Now if someone would come up with an e-card plugin, my life would be complete!

Matt Cutts answers Google questions: - Does Sitemaps depend on pageviews? - What are the top things to do in SEO? - How does Google decide to use a DMOZ snippet versus the description from a meta tag? - Should I use bold or strong tags?

on edit - with the new version of WordPress, the plugin I was using for embedding videos went kaput. It’s not my top priority now, but I’ll be upgrading it soon…

Our newest WordPress plugin is the Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form, found at BeastBlog.

I prefer it to WP-Contact or cforms, for aesthetic reasons mainly, but this one has a lot of features! From the plugin site:

• Form overview page available to you to confirm the plugin’s general configuration.
• Extensive security features with 16 individual abuse countermeasures.
• Build to the highest web standards with maximum accessibility and usability in mind.
• Extremely simple drag-‘n’-drop, plug-‘n’-play set-up — even novices can do it.
• Simple 7-step form-based configuration so you never have to look at one line of code.
• Form set-up error management to help ensure you set-up critical parts correctly.
• Style choices at the ready with some pre-made form themes designed for several popular WordPress themes… all pre-tested.
• Ability to use “no themes” offered in case you want to use your own style sheet.
• Built in Style Sheet Editor so you can edit the available themes or create one of your own. A commented “custom.css” file included for you already.
• Extensive on-board documentation library so help is always at the ready.
• Performance monitoring spam counter function.

I still have to tweak the formatting a bit to match the site, but there are quite a few ready-made themes that may fit your site as is.

I used QuickTags to format and align this block of text to the right.

The QuickTags plugin is very convenient! I made two tags called left and right for the purposes of aligning images or text. You have to switch to Code on the editor, highlight the text that you want the tag to apply to, and simply click the QuickTag. This is ideal for formatting blocks of text (asides), images, or for inserting CSS classes in your html. This plugin is a must-have for WordPress users!

The plugin author’s site is German, but there’s not much to installing it - just upload the plugin file to your plugin directory and install it, then go to Options -> Add Quicktags.