Brian's Tips and Tricks for Web Developers - Useful tips for web developers, bloggers, and WordPress users

The Most Useful WordPress Plugins (My “Cheat Sheet”)

May 2, 2015May 21, 2018 WordPress 4

These are life-saving WordPress plugins that I use on many of my clients’ and my own sites. Alright, maybe “life-saving” is a slight exaggeration,

Create a Fade Effect When Going Between Pages of Your Website

February 15, 2018May 1, 2018 Front End 0

I have a client who wanted pages to fade in on load and fade out when leaving. This effect also hides some of the

Fix the WordPress Divi Contact Form Error “Please refresh the page and try again”

November 21, 2017April 21, 2018 WordPress 4

I use the Divi WordPress theme in many of my sites. On my personal site, I was using the Divi Contact Form module at

Use WordPress as a Static Site Generator for Insane Speed, Reliability, and Security

October 27, 2017February 19, 2018 WordPress 0

WordPress is a great website platform which I use and develop on every day, but, it has its weaknesses. It requires a database that

The Best Replacement for Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird

January 7, 2017April 21, 2018 Productivity 5

In mid 2016, Microsoft announced that they were no longer going to support Windows Live Mail. This was bad news for me, because I

The Easiest Way to Make Your WordPress Divi Accordion Start Out Closed

August 12, 2016April 21, 2018 WordPress 10

Many people who use the WordPress Divi accordion want it to start out closed by default. Every WordPress client that I’ve used it for

Query a WordPress Custom Field Stored As an Array

July 21, 2016January 3, 2017 WordPress 0

Querying a WordPress database is pretty straightforward using WP_Query or get_posts(). However, I ran into a problem when I was trying to search for

Change Your PHP Max File Upload Size in GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting

July 19, 2016October 9, 2017 Sys Admin 24

If you look up how to increase your PHP max file size, most sources will tell you to change the upload_max_filesize setting in your php.ini

The Best WordPress Backup Plugins

June 27, 2016January 3, 2017 WordPress 26

If your WordPress website has any value to you, I can’t stress how important it is to back it up regularly. This can be

Set Up a Background Task (“Cron Job”) in WordPress

May 12, 2016January 3, 2017 WordPress 4

Let’s say you have a page or piece of code that needs to be run regularly, say once a day, or once an hour.

Import Members into WordPress Ultimate Member from CSV File

November 17, 2015October 10, 2017 WordPress 19

The Ultimate Member plugin is a formidable package for managing membership on a WordPress site. Surprisingly, however, it does not have a built-in way

Fix WordPress Ultimate Member Cover Photo Not Uploading

November 13, 2015October 24, 2017 WordPress 17

Ultimate Member is a very widely-used membership WordPress plugin. It works well, but I’ve come across a number of problems with the uploading of

See Which Pages Are Generating Your Adsense Income

September 21, 2015February 10, 2018 Blogging 0

When I first started monetizing my websites using Google Adsense I was surprised that there wasn’t an obvious way to see which pages were

How I Designed the New Logo for DisableMyCable.com

March 5, 2015February 10, 2018 Front End 2

This is a bit of a departure from the other articles on this site. I don’t claim to be a real “designer” – I’m

Do Cross-Domain Google Analytics without the Query String in Your URL

February 26, 2015January 3, 2017 Developer 5

Let’s say you have two completely different primary domains, say, example.com, and purchase.com, and you want to track them as a single site on

Create a WordPress Multisite Network with Different Domain Names

February 23, 2015February 10, 2018 WordPress 20

I had a situation where I needed to create a WordPress Multisite network of sites with each site having completely unique domain names. I found

Map a Separate Domain Name to a WordPress Page or Post

February 8, 2015February 10, 2018 WordPress 33

I had a client who wanted to map a domain name directly to a WordPress Page, and not show the WordPress URL. For example, let’s

11 Tips to Encourage Commenting on Your Blog

January 8, 2015February 10, 2018 Blogging 3

Comments are a really important part of any blog. They give you important feedback about your work, and give you invaluable information about what

The Best Commenting System for Your Website

December 23, 2014February 28, 2018 Blogging 94

I recently decided to do a fresh survey of the most popular commenting services out there so I could use it on my highest-volume

Update Your Amazon AMI from PHP5.3 to PHP5.4 or Higher

November 28, 2014February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 18

I recently discovered that PHP5.4 and higher versions use way less memory (RAM) on my WordPress installations than PHP5.3 does. I mean, like 18MB

My #1 Trick to Drastically Reduce WordPress Memory Usage

November 28, 2014February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 50

I was working on a client’s new WordPress site when I got the dreaded Linux “out of memory” error in my browser unexpectedly: Fatal

Introduction to the Foundation 5 Framework with Tutorials

September 15, 2014February 10, 2018 Front End 0

I recently accepted a web development job that used the Foundation 5 front-end framework. If you know about Twitter’s Bootstrap framework, Foundation is a

Implement Responsive Drop Down Menus that Work on iOS and Android

August 16, 2014February 10, 2018 Front End 23

Drop down menus on iOS and Android (or any devices with touch screens) can be really problematic if the top-level menu item is also

Disable the “Go” Button on the Android and iOS Virtual Keyboard

July 3, 2014February 10, 2018 Front End 12

I recently had a project where I wanted to stop the “Go” button on the Android and iOS popup keyboard from submitting a form

How I Stay Motivated and Productive When Working From Home

February 16, 2014February 10, 2018 Productivity 2

When I transitioned from being a career corporate cubicle-dweller to being a freelancer working from home, I wasn’t sure if I could pull it

Create a Working Copy of Your Amazon EC2 Instance for Development or Upgrade

February 6, 2014February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 2

After living with a free Amazon EC2 t1.micro instance for a while, I wanted to upgrade. The micro instance was great for playing with

The Best Cloud Invoicing Software for Freelancers: FreshBooks vs. Harvest

January 30, 2014February 10, 2018 Productivity 7

I finally decided that it was time to move from my primitive accounting “system” based on Word and Excel to a modern cloud-based solution

Create a “Slot Machine” Hover Effect with CSS

January 6, 2014February 10, 2018 Front End 2

A client requested a “slot machine” hover effect for their social network buttons. When you hover on the icon, it moves up, sort of

Make Your Chrome Browser Window Narrow for Mobile Web Development

December 11, 2013February 10, 2018 Front End 10

My “go to” desktop browser for doing web development is the Chrome browser. It’s got lots of cool plugins, and doesn’t crash as often

Crucial Tips and Tricks for Your Website Launch Checklist

November 4, 2013February 10, 2018 Developer 2

Here is a non-exhaustive list of tips and tricks to help test your website before and immediately after launch. I emphasize, this is not

Proof that Your WordPress Site is Under Attack Right Now

October 30, 2013February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 0

If your WordPress site gets more than a few hundred visitors per day, odds are that it is probably under attack right now, or

Host Multiple Sites on a Single Amazon EC2 Instance

September 27, 2013April 14, 2018 Sys Admin 84

Here’s how to host multiple sites on your EC2 instance running the Amazon Linux AMI. You might want to host different websites on a

An Honest Web Hosting Review in 2013: GoDaddy vs. Bluehost vs. InMotion

September 24, 2013February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 14

One of the most difficult decisions to make when launching a website is which company to use to host it. If you look at

Backup and Restore Your EBS-Based Amazon EC2 Instance

September 16, 2013February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 2

Once I got my Amazon EC2 instance up and running, I was stoked. However, then next worry I had was how to back up

Modify Your .htaccess File to Eliminate Query Strings and Make Pretty URLs

September 7, 2013February 10, 2018 Developer 0

I developed a website for a client that would display different photos based on a query string in the URL. An example of this

Style the WordPress Media Player!

August 9, 2013February 10, 2018 WordPress 179

The WordPress 3.6 Media Player came at just the right time for me. Just a month before, Yahoo discontinued their Yahoo Player, and I

10 Signs Your Business Website Is Out of Date

August 2, 2013February 10, 2018 Blogging 0

When was the last time you updated your website? Most business owners want to concentrate on their core business, not updating their website. Yet,

Reboot Your Amazon EC2 Instance from the Management Console

July 1, 2013February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 0

Here are some beginner-level instructions on how to reboot your Amazon EC2 Instance through the AWS Management Console (you can also do it through

Assign Separate Domain Names to Multiple Sites on Amazon EC2 Running Bitnami

June 4, 2013February 10, 2018 Sys Admin 0

Here is the scenario: I used Bitnami to create a WordPress install on a free Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute) micro instance (see this

How to Avoid and Deal with Mean Comments on Your Blog

May 23, 2013February 10, 2018 Blogging 7

Blogging can be a very personal experience. You’re baring your soul before the world. You are vulnerable. One of the worst things is to