We’ve been getting a lot of requests lately for help troubleshooting a WordPress issue or just fixing up someone’s existing site. While we enjoy creating web sites from scratch, we also love helping people with their existing web sites, even if we didn’t create them. So we are now offering a new feature called Service Credits. We’ve set up a page which explains the concept, how it works, whether it’s something you might be interested in and how to avail yourself of it.

In a nutshell, Service Credits are like cellphone minutes. You purchase blocks of our time which are good for one year from date of purchase. With those Service Credits, you can ask us to upgrade any scripts or programs your site is using, install and configure new plugins and modules, backup your site and/or databases, troubleshoot any problems you are having, and add and update your site’s content. Unlike cellphone minutes, you can roll the credits over from month to month, but bear in mind they do expire one year from date of purchase.

note: Graphic Art Services are specifically excluded from the list of items covered by Service Credits. Due to the nature of graphic art services, those will be contracted as our other services are, with a proposal and quote for specific design services.

It’s about time to bite the bullet and upgrade this site from WordPress 2.0.11 (latest stable legacy version) to 2.6.5 (latest stable version). We’d like to take advantage of some of the cool new plugins out there and … heh, it’s just TIME. So bear with us over the next 24-48 hours while we upgrade our database and fix any resulting nits.

Jacob Cass at JustCreativeDesign.com is holding a charity event celebrating his blog’s first birthday (Happy Birthday, Jacob!). And Pixelita Designs is sponsoring a couple of really cool prizes to help Jacob and his readers celebrate in style!

Of course we can’t top the $1200 Olympus digital camera, but we can come close! We’re donating one free blog makeover for your WordPress, TextPattern, Movable Type or Blogger blog. This is a $650 value. It includes one custom design by Pixelita’s graphic artist, Ivan Minic, coded to your blog platform of choice, retrofitting any plugins you currently have. We’re also donating one Flickr Pro account, a $20 value!

So how do you get your meathooks on these and the other 66 prizes? Jacob’s made it very easy. Just donate to Blog Action Day Poverty Fund or if you’re short on cash, write a blog post about design, design theory or something similar. So you really have no excuse, and you just might win something. (When people get together to give, EVERYONE is a WINNER; there are NO LOSERS.) So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Jacob’s place and make your contribution now!

Pixelita Designs is happy to report that we are back online and will be ready for business at 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time on Tuesday, September 16. We sustained no property damage to speak of and power was restored this afternoon. Again, we appreciate your patience during this difficult time.

BLUSD.org

We were asked to redesign the web site of a 501c non-profit, Blues Lovers United of San Diego (BLUSD). The site was running straight HTML/ASP pages on a IIS server. We converted the site to an Apache server environment and redesigned it to run with the latest and greatest WordPress. The main feature of the site is a comprehensive “gigs” calendar. We are still working on the perfect solution for that now, since it was formerly an Access database. Right now, the organization is taking advantage of the Event Calendar and GigPress plugins to manage various events. Custom code pulls in a featured event onto the front page and there are custom Links and Member Bands pages that pull in selected Link categories. Ivan Minic, Pixelita’s graphic artist, designed a host of banners which change depending on which WP page you are on. This too is customized PHP coding. The organization is very pleased with the new design and the site is much easier to navigate.

Now through September 30 we are having a sale on web site redesigns and blog makeovers. If you have an existing blog or web site running on WordPress, CMS Made Simple, Movable Type, Expression Engine, PixelPost or TextPattern, take 30% off the price of a blog design (these run anywhere from $650 to over $1250, so the savings can be significant!). Just sign a contract before September 30, 2008. You must retain the same underlying CMS in order to take advantage of the sale.

What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

HastingsFirm.com

We were asked to set up a new web site for a local plaintiffs law firm. The requisites for the site were ease of updating, the ability to upload firm whitepapers, custom form development, and an easily updated News feature. We chose CMS Made Simple as the site’s content management system. All graphic artwork is by Pixelita’s Ivan Minic. Photography is courtesy Marmalade Photos. Coded with love by Joni Mueller.

GNOICS.org

We were asked to set up a new web site for a fledgling non-profit, the Greater New Orleans Italian Cultural Society. Like most non-profits, it will be updated by a staff comprised of volunteers of varying degrees of expertise on the Web. We decided to base the site on WordPress and employed the Event Calender, Role Manager, cFormsII and NextGen Gallery plugins. The NextGen Gallery plugin is also driving the Flash-based rotating banners. Banner graphics and all other site graphics are by Pixelita’s resident evil graphic artist, Ivan Minic. Coded with love by Joni Mueller.

CORECapital.info

We were asked by financial wizard Greg Wallace to create an investment site for him. We decided that CMS Made Simple would be the best solution to help him and his staff maintain the site once it’s up and running. We basically took a PowerPoint presentation and broke it down into static pages. There will be new Time Weighted Reports posted each month, so CMS Made Simple’s News module is perfect for that. All graphic artwork is by Pixelita’s Ivan Minic.

Hot on the heels of the late March launch of WordPress 2.5, we have the first security upgrade. It’s urged that you upgrade from 2.5 to 2.5.1 as soon as possible. And for those of you running any other versions of WordPress besides 2.0.11, you should upgrade to 2.0.11 or 2.5.1 to avoid possible compromise of your web site. Remember that Pixelita Designs can upgrade your WordPress blog or site and work with you to find suitable replacement plugins if any that you currently use are not compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Contact us for your upgrade needs.