rebecca taylor's miscellany

Fuzzy Nation Super Model Facebook Photo Contest

2011-08-10T05:13:19+00:00

The Fuzzy Nation Super Model Contest is ON! I’m so proud of the effort to bring this contest to life on Facebook. From July 11-August 1, you could enter your adoption story and photo on Fuzzy Nation’s Facebook page. Fifty finalists were chosen among over two thousand entries. Fuzzy Nation’s fanbase soared from 2,000 to over 7,000 in the entry phase; and just two days into the voting round on the 50 finalists, they have broken the 10,000 fan mark. You can vote once a day until August 21! Head on over and vote for your favorite story or local shelter to win $10,000! And if you are looking for a custom Facebook photo contest for your own project, please contact me!

Bluehost and ExpressionEngine URL Rewriting

2011-08-09T21:08:33+00:00

.htaccess URL rewriting in ExpressionEngine suddenly stop with Bluehost PHP upgrade? Try this line in your php.ini file:

cgi.fix_pathinfo=Off

VOILA.

Coming this Summer: Facebook Contest {Facebook Mini-Site}

2011-06-04T15:10:40+00:00

I’ve been taking a break from my usual ExpressionEngine work to develop a Facebook app-contest for some wonderful folks. Sssshhh, sneak preview. The contest is hidden behind a Like-Gate and will have viral voting after an entry submission period in July. More on this later this summer ...

When .htaccess clashes with http auth

2011-05-12T16:55:29+00:00

removing index.php from expressionengine urls, take II. This time, a client need http auth on a file in their x-cart payment directory. While x-cart and expressionengine coexist nicely, the top-level .htaccess that rewrites index.php out of the urls was clashing with http auth. In this case, a simple addition to .htaccess before the rewrite rule (exclude method, d’oh, more on that later) allowed the http auth to function (prior, it was essentially throwing a 401):

RewriteCond $1 !^(401.shtml)

carry on.

Subtle Background Design Patterns

2011-05-09T20:40:14+00:00

Oh. one always needs high quality subtle patterns to add a rich dimension to flat colour.

Tips for Migrating your Facebook Account to Page

2011-04-22T15:07:51+00:00

I’ve been doing a small favor for a client, updating their Facebook profile. First off, they are a business and had an old ‘person’ type account. So they needed to update their account to a page.

Some tips and caveats along the way:

1. Do not migrate your account until you first download your Facebook data. Only your profile image and friends (who will be turned into fans) will be migrated! So that means photos, etc. are not transferred. Go to account -> settings -> download your information and jump through those hoops. Facebook will email you when your download is ready to go. The good news: It’s in a simple format tree when you unarchive the download.
2. You cannot have multiple addresses for your business place. This is a small bummer for the local small business who has multiple locations but only needs a single Facebook presence. I would predict we’ll see accommodation for this from Facebook in the near future.
3. If you are a business, consider adding the reviews app to your sidebar. It’s a great tool for soliciting feedback and building brand loyalty and confidence, especially if you want to limit user’s ability to post directly on your wall; you can allow them to post in the reviews. To add the reviews app, while you are logged in as your page, go here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6261817190&ref=ts and click on the “Add to page” link in the left side.
4. Speaking of “being logged in as your page,” to do that, go to the Account tab and select “Use Facebook as a Page.”

littlered media is a member of the ExpressionEngine Professional Network

2011-04-13T21:37:42+00:00

I’m proud to announce that I am now a member of the ExpressionEngine professionals network. Browse my portfolio or contact me today to talk about your ExpressionEngine project!

Crash Course Design for Start-ups

2011-04-10T20:10:45+00:00

A thoughtful blog post with a ton of useful reference links.

Great Client Feedback

2011-04-08T22:02:31+00:00

Here’s a running list of some of the best client feedback I’ve received:

OMG WTF FTW IMHO GTD LOL awesome
That looks dope to h*ll!!!!!!!

As always, ♥ to all my wonderful clients.

Information Architecture, Faceted Navigation and Duplicate Content

2011-03-30T21:20:16+00:00

Good read by the always smart and engaging folks over at seomoz.org - this time on the importance of information architecture and the subtlety of faceted navigation v. filters and how that plays into the grand scheme of your SEO goals.

Key Takeaways

Use as many facets as you need to ensure that your deepest faceted pages contain 100 products or fewer AND to ensure you have all the pages you need to target the keywords you want to rank for.

Pagination and sorting options can cause duplicate content – use Ajax / JavaScript to avoid this.

No matter which route a user takes to reach a particular page there can be only one (think Highlander) indexable URL.

Remember to create unique content for each page – the more important the page, the more awesome the content

faceted navigation cheat-sheet