webgarden.ca

Some wordpress themes and not very good a supporting “static” pages. After  you have altered your wordpress blog into a static site, you may end up with 2 home links in your menu bar . To remove one of the two home pages go into your theme folder and find header.php. Locate the following code: (near the bottom)

 <div id=”menu”>
 <ul>
   <li class=”<?php if (is_home()) { ?>current_page_item<?php } else { ?>page_item<?php } ?>”> <a href=”<?php bloginfo(‘url’); ?>” title=”Home”>Home</a></li>
  <?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1′); ?>
 </ul>
</div>

comment out this part:

<a href=”<?php bloginfo(‘url’); ?>” title=”Home”>Home</a>

Upload header.php and refresh your page to review the changes.

 ALWAYS comment out the code – DO NOT DELETE – you never know when/ if you may need it again.

I hope this is helpful for some of you!

I was surfing the web today and typed in Costa greenhouse to see how highly ranked in Google they are. To my suprise Costa Greenhouse is listed with a WARNING stating “this site may harm your computer”

and then, after clicking on the link, a second warning comes up, and takes up the whole page:

This is really BAD! First of all, this is a huge deterrent for  your customers! Nobody wants to go to a site that could harm your computer! Secondly, if Google flags your site as being malicious – it is nearly impossible to get back into Google’s “good books” I really can’t believe that an international greenhouse & nursery doesn’t have a full time web developer taking care of this!

Then, after closer inspection of the site, I realized it is not THE Costa greenhouse in Florida – but Costa Farm & Greenhouse – a smaller and lesser known greenhouse and nursery. Good news for Costa Farms Florida!  But I still think their web developer should be on top of closely associated names. Costa Farms should be actively developing new content to help them rank under both Costa Farms, Costa Greenhouses and Costa Nursery so that when a user is searching under any name, the correct Costa Farms comes up! Doing this will improve their google rankings, protect their reputation and help avoid confusion.

Do you think their web developer should be more on top of this? Why do you think he/she isn’t?

The term “mission statement” has gotten a bad rap over the years. Too many business owners create  mission statements out of drivel and meaningless catch phrases such as: “customer service, quality products, and family values” .

Although you may offer all of the above, a mission statement is supposed to let everyone know what your business does and what it is striving to achieve. Good mission statements take time and effort. Here are some examples of good mission statements:

• Wal-Mart: To give ordinary folks the chance to buy the same thing as rich people
• Disney: To make people happy
• Domino’s Pizza: To be the leader in off-premises pizza convenience.
• McDonald’s: To be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.

All of these examples are short and sweet and they let everyone know what their business is about – without all the meaningless boasting bluster!

To create your own mission statement fill in the following statements, and then condense the results into one or two short sentences. This will result in a mission statement that accurately reflects your business’s purposes.
(I have included my answers to get you started)

• Our customers are: (Greenhouse and Nursery Owners)
• Products and Services we offer are:(websites, blogs, online databases)
• Our Target Market is: (Greenhouses in Canada, Netherlands, USA)
• Our Ecomomic Objectives Are: (make money, profit)
• Our beliefs, values and aspirations are: (create visually appealing and user friendly websites)
• What are we really good at? (website design)

From these answers, I have created the webgarden mission statement as follows: 

Webgarden Mission Statement:

“Provide website design and development to the Canadian, Dutch and American Greenhouse and Nursery Industry by helping them create visually appealing, user friendly, standards compliant websites and online databases.”

There is no right or wrong answers when developing your mission statement. Also, it is not carved in stone, so as your business changes and grows so can your mission statement!

In 2001  Ocean Park Nurseryland shut it’s doors and the next day, reopened as Garden Works. Now, in 2008 Garden Works is gone and a new nursery The Plant Market has opened up. It is owned by Len Houwelling (who has a lifetime’s experience in the horticulture industry) and is being  managed by Monica, the former buyer for ArtKnapps.

I had the pleasure of visiting The Plant Market over the weekend, and  was pleased to see there was a decent selection of annuals and shrubs as well as ceramic pots and giftware. The store is nice and airy and it is laid out so that everything can be easily found.

The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and the local garden center atmosphere has once again returned to Ocean Park. I look forward to spending more time (and  money) at the Plant Market this spring!

After several trial and error plugins I finally found one that works and displays author images on your blog. I am  using it on the author page, so that you can read a little bio about each author and check out his or her picture.

You can download the plugin here: geekgirl I spent a buck on this plug-in and it was well worth it!

Another plug-in I tried was by semi-logic, and although it seems to be working for some, I could not figure it out! Now, I am far from being a php expert, but judging from several user comments on their site, not many people seem to be able get it to work… and even though I posted a question on their forum I did not receive an  answer. (But, I shouldn’t really complain cuz these guys are building plugins for the greater good of mankind, and don’t receive any monetary compensation.)

All and all I think that geekgirl has made a ‘rockin plugin – and even includes example code  inside the folder so if you get stuck you can refer to those for help.