Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of Your Website Engineer Podcast.

My name is Dustin Hartzler and today I will be talking about the new design of my websites and this is something that has been going on many months in the past and it was a goal for me to launch it on February 28 of 2015 so hopefully by the time you are listening this you can head on over to yourwebsiteengineer.com and you see the brand-new site.

I am going to talk a little bit about some the new aspects the new design wire sticking with some of the features that I just absolutely could not live without when designing this website and I'm some of these concerns came up with some of the things I couldn't do with the other CMS´s that I did the review in the showdown for within the last month and back in November of 2014. But first let’s run into the announcements really super quick.

The first one is about the March WordPress webinar that is happening on March 6th at 10:00 a.m. eastern time and we will be talking about why to use Jetpack, why the Jetpack plugin should be the first plugin installed on your WordPress site. We are going to talk about the different things that you can use, the different modules to give you the most bang for your buck, how you can use WordPress.com and managed to see what sites needs updated, which ones needs the core updates, what needs the plugin updates, I am going to show you as much as I absolutely possibly can in an hour-long session.

If you come and you participate live you can ask me any questions whether be related to jet pack or anything else and I know that 10:00 a.m. is probably not the best time for everyone especially with a global audience but I think 10:00 a.m. is the time that a) works best for me and it actually works best for a lot of the time zones across the world and so That's why we're going to start at 10:00 a.m. next Friday, March 6th.If you are interested you can head on over in to yourwebsiteengineer.com/webinar and sign up and you can register and then you will get an email when I send out the replay.

The cool part of my brand-new website is it actually has the latest post or the latest webinar replay right there on the homepage you can watch it straight from there and you can get that information right away so if you're stumbling along you want to check out the new version of yourwebsiteengineer.com and you will see that there on the homepage.

The other announcement today that I want to share is all about WordPress 4.1.1 that is a new release that is available, it came out on February 18th so it's been out for just under a week. This is a maintenance release that fixes 21 bugs and everyone may be waiting there's a lot of people that are like oh I don't want to update to the newest point version of WordPress they are maybe not updating to WordPress 4.1 until the point one release comes out because of there is always small types of bugs and different things that come out and I don't want to update to the newest version of software.

Well, actually it has been about two months since 4.1 came out and it's had more than 14 million downloads and there is there wasn´t a lot of issues a lot of problems these are all kind of small bugs and small fixes but those were the things that came out in WordPress 4.1 have it turned on in your WordPress site to automatically update when that comes out and that should have just automatically done that in upgraded for you and if you don't you can go ahead and set that up inside your WordPress dashboard.

This week, is there a plugin for that section? Is a really cool plugin that I found and it is called Mentionable and this is one that was just like wow this is so cool, now, it only works in the visual editor but it is really, really super cool so you can use the Facebook tagging system to link to other blog post that you've created and so something — like you can do like. Just think about a brand-new installation of WordPress.

You have a post, you create a new post and the only other post it is there is the “hello world” so if you would go into your visual editor and you type @hello insert to type hello world, they will actually auto complete and say hey do you want this as your link and when you select that — I think you just hit enter. And then it automatically expand that out into a link that goes —right to your main. Back to that blog post yourwebsiteengineer.com/hello-World or whatever that is, it automatically creates a link for you.

You don't have to think of what the blog post title is and I guess, when you do hit enter saves the link as the blog post title and the you can go in to change that if you want.

The workflow instead of okay what was the title? And then you have to go and look up for that URL and then you save the URL or copy the URL and you past it and then you add some text around it, I mean it's just kind of crazy; it is a newer plugin, its version 0.3 but I know some of the developers that worked on it and it looks really, really cool.

If you're interested in something like this if you do a lot of linking between different post and different custom post types and things like that then I think WordPress or this Mentionable plugin would be really cool to use on your website and you can get more information over at yourwebsiteengenieer.com/221.

All right, now let’s go on to the main topic of the show today, so today — and it looks like I'm copying Michael Hyatt and I'm not because he just recently released a brand-new version of his website michaelhyatt.com, he is someone that I look up to and they probably spent a lot more money than I did they had the designers, they had all kinds of people helping them kind of come up with a personal you know this is the exact weight of his brain is going to work for him and his company and his business.

Me on the other hand, I did almost all this from scratch, I hired somebody to create a new version of the logo for me and a few different things but for the most part it was me and some really close friends looking at it and giving me advice and feedback and then me implementing notes and encoding them and that is probably why I started the project back in September of 2014 and I am finally launching it here in February of 2015 it is one of my 12 or 10 or 12 year-long goals in 2015 so I am going to get this out and you're in be able see the brand-new version of it.

Some new features that I have kind of built-in is I did update the logo just a little bit it is still the yellow helmet it's just more of a flat look instead of like a three-dimensional look and so I have changed up kind of how the text looks across the screen.

One of the big things I was looking for in a website was a menu bar that didn't scroll with the rest of the page I wanted to stay consistent at the top at all times and so if you go to the homepage you can go and scroll and then menu stays at the top the entire time. Also built-in the “I search” in the upper right hand corner, I hate it when I go to a website that doesn't have a search box and it is not easy to find — because sometimes you just want to search for something. And I just ended up putting that right there, quite at the top, right at the top.

On the homepage it basically shows my latest podcast episode and my latest webinar and the webinar replay and then I show case some of my asset plugin which I've actually had to update just a little bit to get that to work right and show some of the other on podcast episodes I have been on recently so that is all kind of it on the homepage.

The site is really kind of basic there's not a lot to it I really over hall the resources page, the webinar pages got all the replays in one knot on and then the podcast episode pages is all built-in, I went through and I have changed everything to be the Smart Podcast Player by Pat Flynn and instead of using Power Press — because I disliked the interface. It looks really nice, so those are some of the big changes.

Another thing is it is fully responsive; I have been for the past four years since 2010 — well not the whole time. But ever since I launched in 2010 responsive really wasn't the thing and I have always — probably for the last year or so. I relied on the WP touch plugin and well, in order to do that with some my custom pages and custom templates that I am using like I really kind of had to hack that plugin and I kind of make it work it was always kind of a pain if I change something on my main site that it won´t change the mobile version so this all works kind of seamlessly together.

I was going to create a video on how I actually stepped through this entire process but basically what I did is I went out and I purchased a theme from Theme Forest and I bought the HTML version of the theme and so I purchased the HTML version because a lot of WordPress themes that I've seen on theme port sometimes have a lot of extra bloat — they have like. They have the ability to go in and customize colors and all that stuff which I don't need, I didn't want that, I wanted just the plain codes so I could build it into my tec or I could build the website that I wanted to and so that is going to be the first reason why I am sticking with WordPress.

I know that this can be done with other CMS´s in different platforms but I found it is very easy to create a theme, a WordPress theme, from HTML and this is something that it took me some time like, yes it took me months and months and months to build, I would say probably a month of that time was just going through and converting a website from HTML to the WordPress version. it's pretty simple like you just cut the theme and I found the index page and then I said okay, everything from here on up is going to be in the header everything from here on down is going to be in the footer, here is the side bar and then here is the main content of the page.

And then you can go in and make variations of that so I made a full page with one, I made a homepage with one, and it is still all using the header and footer so that is consistent that remains consistent on every single page and all parts of my site.

So the first reason I am sticking with WordPress is that it is easy to use and it is easy to build that theme, that costume theme that you want, especially even if you mark something up or designs something in Photoshop that can be turned easily into HTML and form HTML to WordPress pretty easily as well.

So, this are reasons again that I'm staying with WordPress and it is not because I work for Automatic and I have to be in WordPress, this is some of the really, truly fine points of WordPress that I enjoy and I am so pumped to use and utilize and just kind of learn and figure out how to be more efficient with my coding and not using nearly as much as not having a format and do as many things as I had to on my old site.

The first reason was it easy to create a theme from HTML. The second reason is short codes and I talked about this in a few episodes back like about how to create short codes and how to use them and things like that and honestly I hadn't really use them that much, there was one that was built into my old theme — that was called. That was basically gives me columns and again these weren't responsive columns but they were the ability to say if I will put in —a short code left. Or one half and then that would show anything is on the left-hand side of the screen and if I did one half last that would be the right-hand side of the screen.

And then I could create two columns or I can do one third and two thirds or can do one third one third one third and that was pretty much the only short code that I have ever used, I think I used the Power Press short code to add my podcast episode in but other than that there wasn't a lot of coding, a lot of short codes that I used and when I was building this some of the areas that I had to use for the theme — so this came with. It was a fully populated theme and, I wanted to remain consistent with the styles and the customizations that the theme author had created.

So, there was maybe a lot of different styling that I had to do to get it just perfect and just right and so I found that, especially on the resources page, I wanted to make sure that the resources page was perfect and I have some different things that — I have some. Some of them broken up with a background image and there was a lot of code that I needed to add to make it look right and I was like I don't really want that to be on every single — every single time I make a full width one. I don't want to copy and paste all of this coding to greater short code and I called the short code resource.

Basically what it does is it actually puts 6 closing div tags first and then it opens up a new class and just the way the WordPress loop port it's a lot of cone it took me a little while to figure it out okay, how does this work and how do a get this working, but now all I have to do I want to create a full width long resource you just go in and type-in a short code resource and enclose it with a /resource at the end and you can see this when you go to the resource page and this is the first one that — I think the first one is the BP sessions. And that is the one that is running the short code and just as a bunch of HTML around it that I don't have a hand code every single time I like that that was that was one of the things that I did.

Another thing that I really like is I set up an new area and this is one of the new features of the website as well, every podcast episode going forward I am doing my best to get them transcribe so you have a version to read through if you want to read through real quick and you don´t want to actually listen to the episode and what I wanted to do there is I want to create like an embeddable HTML scrolling box so that the transcript didn´t take up pages and pages of scrolling but I just restricted to like a 400 or 500 pixel tall window and then you can scroll through that pretty easily.

Well I didn´t want to have to do that every time and wrap some code around it and so I started — with just. I just started and added the class and then wrapped it around the word transcript and so then all I had to do is put transcript paste the transcript and then say end transcripts.

Well, then I got creative when I was doing it — and then I started to. I added a class to that and then I actually said — I add H2 tag. And I said full transcript and then I put Your Website Engineer audio transcription is provided by and then I put a link to the company that is actually doing the transcription for me which is GMR Transcription so I save a lot of time every week I don´t have to go in and actually type all this up and remember what it was and things like that so it's really, really cool.

I am using short codes now to highlight my different code which I really like so I can go in and say here's the code that you need and you can see it kind of styled and things like that and then I am doing responsive columns as well so I kind of modify that one half thing that I talked about earlier and made them just a little bit nicer so that it will respond appropriately to my website.

So those are some things that I really enjoyed about short codes I never really imagined using them as much as I did and as much as I have but they are just amazing and they save you a ton of time takes a little bit of full process to get everything set up but they are awesome.

All right, the next reason I am sticking with WordPress it is custom meta-boxes and these are areas underneath your fields that are actually called custom fields I think — and are there. Yes they are custom fields and their built right in and you don't really have to do anything to get them set up but basically how I'm using this is I'm using it as a way to display the smart passive podcast player actually, this kind of neat, I wanted to be able to show a play icon on the homepage for my most recent episode and so how do I do that? —How could I? I guess I could just run out a short code like I can type in on the homepage, I could put in the short code, well, that didn't really work well.

A custom meta-box or a custom field box is basically an area where I scan out right down. I can say when the custom field is called podcast player and then I can paste in the shortcut from podcast player and then I can make it appear wherever I want if I wanted to appear at the top of the page, on the bottom of the page, on the homepage, on you know, in some crazy widget on the sidebar like now I can control all of that and I can put it exactly where I want.

Of course it takes a little custom code to display a custom field but once you kind of have that code done then you don´t have to do it over and over and over again so before in my old version of my website, what I have to do is to get in the right place like I would first have to go and I have to put — without using custom fields. I actually had to paste the short code into the top of the post so it appeared at the top of post and then in order to go somewhere else I hadn't —and this was when I was using the Power Press player. I actually —pasted in. I actually add some code that would display the player right there on the homepage or the post page so I actually didn´t have to use the shortcut.

That is what I was trying to get to otherwise you have to use the short code, you have to paste the short code wherever you want. So meta-boxes are really cool; meta-boxes can be used if you have the same content on very regular basis in many different places, that's the perfect place to use a custom field.

Now, there are other things called, I think their metal boxes or custom metal boxes, they take a little bit more time to set up and it gives you more a custom field like it basically gives you a form that says you can fill this out for the custom field you have the ability to either name what your custom field is or you can select from the drop-down menu like here is all the custom fields you have used in the past, so I'm just using custom fields because it was a lot of less time to set up and it is very easy and convenient to use So, now all of my podcast episodes go right in there and then they go to the appropriate places to wherever I want them on my site.

Another feature that I really liked in WordPress that I am using is the revisions tab; revisions tab it is very helpful especially when you are trying to update your page and you are looking at it live, you are making changes; well I am working on the resource pages, I have made over 100 changes, —I have a. It is really kind of crazy that on the resource page alone I have had 103 revisions of that page, and it dates all back to 2010 when I started the page, when I first created the page of my website but it shows every single revision, every single small little changes I have made every time that I hit the publish button.

Do I need to keep all of those? No, right before I launch the site I am actually going to just wipe that clean, I don't need to save all of those because it has changed dramatically from December 2010 to February 2015 but there were a couple of cases where I removed some code and then I just removed instead of copying it and it didn't work right and then I was like oh, I didn´t copy it then I was able to go to revisions tab and just slide back to the previous version and then hit restore and it absolutely worked.

It is a little confusing like I don't quite get the interface, the interface doesn't work quite well it is not really intuitive like if I slide this which one is being restored? Is it the left one?, is the right one? It is kind of crazy like that but the revisit tab is really, really cool.

And the last thing that I wanted to share of why I am sticking with WordPress is the ability to have the must use plugins, this are plugins that are housed in the MU – plugins folder and that is inside the WP – content folder, they are in a separate area than your normal plugins, you can see them from the plugins tab or the plugins area of your WordPress dashboard but they cannot be turned off, they cannot be disabled for clients and clients can't really do anything with them.

Basically you can put any code that you have in the functions.php file, you can put them in these custom plugins or these must use plugins and when they are there you can move them easily from one side to another.

For example, I have a must use plugin as my custom login page and that gives me just a cool custom login with my logo and stuff like that; I have one for short codes so any short code that I built I will put it in the short code must use plugin so then if I change themes all that code comes with me and a custom post types is another one I have got all my webinars in the custom post types I have got a few other things set up for custom post types and because they are in the custom post types then all I have to do is duplicate that code from one side to another and it automatically worked on my brand-new site; I didn't have to go in and find the code and take it out of the theme and then move it to my new theme and stuff like that.

So, everything worked beautifully all I had to do is copy that MU – plugins folder from my old site to my new site and everything started working so well.

So, those are the five reasons that it is easy to create a theme from HTML it is awesome to create your own short codes or use short codes that are from plugins but I found that the best of actually create my own plugins for my own uses.

The custom fields of metal boxes those are super nice and they're very, very helpful to create a website exactly the way that you wanted, the revisions tab is a great way to roll back in your history just a little bit in case you messed up, you deleted something without copying and you can't get it back revisions tab is perfect for that and must use plugins as of the five things of five reasons that I just been in love with WordPress when I was building my brand-new site.

Before I get out of here today I wanted to say thank you for everyone who has been following me on this journey who has been writing and asked me a question and say hey I love your site, it is great and I like the look and the feel and that you know, just the way that the site looks and hopefully this new site will work exactly the same, there might be some quirks if you see anything go ahead and go to the contact form and just fill that out real quick and say, hey I can't find this or how do I get to this on my new site and I will make sure that I get that fixed right away.

This is something that I am sure that with thousands of people looking at it are going to find way more things that I could find with all my debugging in my testing and check it out on different devices, if you look at it on your phone or your tablet or computer everything should be responsive and it should look good and if it doesn't if you could send me a screenshot or anything like that I would really appreciate that and I will dig in and get that thing fixed.

So, thank you for all your support the last couple of years and I am so pleased and thankful that I'm able to launch my brand-new website before my actual date of when I wanted to have the goal done which was February 28th, 2015.

So when you are done listening to this episode or when you are done driving or you have got a few minutes of your time head on over to yourwebsiteengieneer.com and take a little poke around I will really appreciate it and say what you think of the new design. I have been working on it so long and so hard and I am really pleased with the results.

Next week we are going to be talking about the differences of a full site and a one page layout and we are going to talk about the differences, what is good and what is not so stay tuned for that and that is what we are talking next week so take care, bye, bye.