Comicmercial - Phrustrations

This fall we are trying to do more advertising in different publications. We have come up with an idea, and we are calling it phrustrations. Phrustrations is just a way for us to share some of the stories that we have heard from our customers over the years about what their situation was, and the frustrations they suffered while running their business regarding web design, graphic design, marketing, advertising, and other services we offer.

So we are taking those stories, adding some humor to it, and running them as what I would call a “comicmercial” . Our idea is to run at least 6 of them and see how their work. I am not saying this comicmercials are new, but they are certainly a different way to advertise, but as usual in marketing “different” often implies risk. The risks that I can see right off the bat are the following:

• People who are not interested in comics won’t even glance at your ad.
• Even with a strong/clear call to action, people may still confuse them with a regular comic strip.
• People may think you and your company are childish or foolish.

As I said is something we are trying to see if it works. If they don’t make the phone ring at least we hope we would have made some people smile.

You can pick up a copy of this week’s El Paso Inc and see it by yourself on the 5th page.

What do you think? Will they work?

Related posts:

1. Why you should get a professional logo and website design

L and J. The old place by the graveyard

If you are an El Pasoan you probably know about L & J Cafe. The restaurant by the graveyard. It is a must-visit place not just for tourist but for everybody. Great food, great ambience, what else do you need?

It was a pleasure working with them, and coming out with a design that would represent the fact that they are a “classic” in El Paso, and also that they are one of the oldest restaurants in Town.

Let us know what you think about the design, and don’t forget to visit L & J for a great mexican lunch.

Related posts:

1. Magazine Ad for The Pink Store
2. Ranchers Grill Web Design

Think twice before you ask your cousin to do your logo

The image of your business is very important and, as the saying goes “First impressions always count”, the same is true for your logo and business image. People will make assumptions about your business just by looking at your logo, website, brochure, etc. Remember that a logo is more than just a pretty picture. It is a message you are sending to your prospective clients about how the world is set to see your business, and it should make your company memorable and recognizable. An amateur logo design may cost you way more than you feared so: here are some reasons why.

1. Your business may look unstable and not professional. As a result, clients may feel insecure and unconfident about doing business with you. Would you do business with some company if you were not sure whether they would still be doing business by the end of the week?
2. Your amateur logo/image may confuse people about who you are as a business. Unprofessional and incoherent marketing materials send mixed signals to your prospective clients, and even make them think they are getting marketing materials from different companies. They may also think that you don’t care about the way your business looks and therefore the quality of your work.
3. It can make you look as a very small business. What do you think about those free VistaPrint or template-based business cards? If your business cannot afford its own business cards and/or marketing materials and it has to go for the free or cheap ones, it may be understood that you are not getting business through the door, and that you cannot perform or meet what it is required.
4. It may just go completely wrong. We’ve all seen logos go just completely wrong. Just type “Logos gone wrong” into your favorite internet search engine. If something like this happens to your business reputation, the amount of time and money that you will spend “fixing” your image will be way more than it would have been to get a professional logo design in first place.

These are just a few reasons why you should get a professional to create a custom logo for your business. Instead of spending hours thinking about what to do and figuring out how to do it, you should spend your time running your business and creating your more important asset: a client base.

If you have never designed a logo, a website, business cards, or other marketing material, and it is not part of the services your business will be offering, please don’t start now. Statistics show that half of new businesses fail in the five first years. Experts say that a common reason is sloppy and ineffective marketing. You will spend an awful amount of time learning how to do it and getting it right, instead of getting more clients.

Not convinced about your current logo? or do you need a new logo and marketing materials? Contact us so we can help you grow your business.

Related posts:

1. Borderpak Logo Design
2. Phrustrations
3. Starcity Sealants Logo Design

So you decided to start blogging, you already have a wordpress template ready for your new blog, so you upload the files try to install and realize that the “famous 5 min installation” doesn’t work because of your Plesk settings.

Keep in mind that you can always manually create the conf.php file that wordpress needs to access the database, The first thing you need to do is to upload all the wordpress files into your preferred installation directory. Then log into your plesk account and select the domain under which you want to install wordpress. Then go to “File Manager”. Inside file manager browse until you get to the installation folder, in this case httpdocs. Now selected it and click on the “permissions” link on the forth column. This should take you to the permissions page, in here you need to add the option “write” to group. So they should like something like this.

Add write permissions to group in Plesk v9

This tells the server that you should let other people from the owners group to write. This other “people” is the php module.

Now, this should take care of the configuration file. However there are still a few adjustments that you need to do. First, if you control the domain and trust your users,  then you need to make php NOT to run on safe mode. Running php on safe mode “secures” your files by not letting other people (php users) to write your files. So this somehow poses a security thread, so WHEN YOU ARE DONE MAKE SURE TO SET IT BACK TO SECURE MODE.

Change this back one you are done installing Wordpress

In order to make php run on secure mode, go back to your domain panel and go to Web Hosting Settings under “Web Site”, you will be presented a list of options. Towards the end of the list you will php under services. Uncheck the box that says “Run in safe mode” Then save your changes.

Once you have done this you will be able to install Wordpress without any problems in Plesk V9.

However if you want to be able to upload files through the Flash uploader sometimes (depending on your Plesk configuration) you will need to change something else. For this you will need to login as root via ssh to your server and change the file /var/www/vhosts/your.domain.tld/conf/http.include. In this file make sure that all your open_base dir argument is correct. Meaning that you can access your temporary upload folder, and that you can access wherever is that you are going to save those images.

Let us know if you find this useful, and remember if you are looking for a great wordpress template let us know, we can sure help you with that.

Related posts:

1. Hiding, Securing & Changing WP-Admin

Your wordpress installation may not be secure

Once an open source system becomes so popular as wordpress very often it becomes vulnerable to attacks. I wonder why the folks at wordpress have not done anything to enhance the security of the admin site, which, by default, you can access by going to /wp-admin.

The problem is that if you rename the directory then your wordpress installation becomes broken. I’ve looked and I could not find a plug-in that would let you change the wp-admin folder to something else, or at least conceal it. The only result that I found about how to do this is by Michi Kono. However the solution proposed has a few drawbacks like some links no longer working. Of course you have the option of restricting access to selected IP addresses via .htaccess but if you are like most non-commercial internet subscribers you don’t have a static IP, which makes things more complicated.

So here is another solution to make wordpress more secure while keeping all wordpress functionality.

The first thing we need to do is to pick what “name” we want for your admin section. For purposes of this “tutorial” we will call it “secure-login”.

Note: You are about to modify crucial files in your wordpress installation. So do this at your own risk, and please, please backup your files before you do this.

Now, open your .htaccess file and add the following line after the “RewriteBase ” line.

RewriteRule ^secure-login$     wp-admin.php [L]

so your .htaccess should look something like this.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^secure-login$ wp-login.php [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

</IfModule>

# END WordPress

This tells your server that when you ask for “secure-login” you should be taken to wp-login.php

Now we need to edit wp-login.php which is located at the root of your installation. Add this before anything else.

 session_start();
 
//See what file is being requested by the web client, also store the arguments just in case.
list($file,$arguments) = explode("?", $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
 
//if the user just logged out, destroy this session and redirect them to root
if("/wp-login.php?loggedout=true" == $file ."?" .$arguments)
{ session_destroy(); header("location: /"); }
 
//If our sentinel variable is set and true do nothing, allow normal script execution
if(isset($_SESSION['valid_entrance']) && $_SESSION['valid_entrance'] == true) { /* As they say, "Silence is golden" */ }
 
//Now if the user is requesting wp-login.php and our sentinel is not true, redirect the "attacker" to root.
elseif($file == "/wp-login.php" && !isset($_SESSION['valid_entrance']))
{  header("Location: /"); exit(); }
 
//If the user is requesting the right login entrance set the sentinel to true
elseif ($file == "/secure-login")
{  $_SESSION['valid_entrance'] = true; }

That’s all you need to do. Your wordpress installation just became more secure. Don’t forget to upload your updated files to your server.

I may do a plug-in whenever I find the time.

I would also recommend using Login Lockdown by Michael VanDeMar.

Let me know if you have any questions or recommendations for this

Related posts:

1. Installing WordPress in Plesk 9

Pat's Olchefski site lauch

Pat Olchefski-Winston, aka Lady Pearl, is a multi-disiplinary artist, and yoga instructor.

She began her career over 20 years ago, and has shown her work through the US, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean, and now thanks to his new web design and revamped site, she is able to show, and manage her digital gallery very easy online with the help of our services in web application development.

Click on the image to the right to preview the site, keep clicking and you will be able to see some of her beautiful work.

Do you think that her new design fits her as an artist? Let us know.

Related posts:

1. Web site design for VP Sports
2. New Web Design for François Modave

At the same time, we are unveiling the Phidev Inc blog, we will be writing about design in general, marketing, and business, and every so often technical things regarding web design.

We would love to hear your comments about it, if it shows correctly in your browser, and suggestions that you may have for it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Related posts:

1. Phrustrations

Delaneys Steak House Magazine Ad Design

We have been commissioned by Piñata Publishing to design Delaney’s steak house ad for the El Paso Official Visitors Guide.

The ad showcases a beautiful picture of the place, and the places logo.

If you want to know more about Delaney’s just visit their website. They really offer something different in El Paso.

Related posts:

1. Magazine Ad for The Pink Store
2. Piñata Publishing Media Kit
3. Homegrown El Paso Member Directory Ads

Check the new look of the Rancher!

We had the great experience of working with The Ranchers Grill, and Piñata Publishing to come up with a new web design for The Ranchers Grill Restaurant. They already had a website whose design was about 7 years all, and as you know, a lot of things have changed since then.

So we were able to give them a new look that reflects a more up-to-date image of the Ranchers Grill. Next time you feel like having a steak, and if you are in El Paso, you should go and check them out. They do real good food!

Related posts:

1. Web Design for L & J
2. Homegrown El Paso!

Web design for VP Sports

VP Sports is a local company that sells logoed apparel and embroidery. They needed an easy and inexpensive way to update their online catalog so they decided to get our web application development services.

With the web application that we developed for them they can easily add, remove and edit products in their catalog, along with their pictures and companion products.

The bottom line here is that the cost for our customized web application development services was less than what they used to spend to update their site, and now they can do it all by themselves without having to spend a penny.

Isn’t that great?

Related posts:

1. New Web Design for François Modave
2. Olchefski’s Artistic Web Design