We’re Hiring a Web Project Manager
Do you have a passion for website production and experience managing web designers and/or developers? If so, please read on.
Blueberry Ln. Web & New Media is expanding rapidly (we hired several web developers in the Fall) and now we’re looking for some additional help organizing all the projects and relationships. I’m proud of our work in the last year, and the transition of the business from a one-man shop to a boutique web agency. If you or someone you know is ready to contribute to the success of a growing company, we’re all ears.
This is a freelance, work-from-home opportunity that is perfect for an organized person that has a knack for technology and the web.
For more details and information on how to apply, please view the job posting on LinkedIn or on Craigslist.
Please pass this on if someone comes to mind that would be a nice fit!
WordPress Tip: How to Easily Customize Excerpt Output
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that baffle those of us working with WordPress. My goal on a recent project was to grab snippets of the latest blog entries and display the text without images. That’s easy enough using the default WordPress
< ?php the_excerpt(); ?>
Unfortunately, the_excerpt needs a little love if you want to add a nice “Read more…” link or change the number of characters displayed for each post. By default the number of characters is 55. You can search on this until you’re blue in the face because developers have hacked up various solutions to this over the years, but many of them no longer work in WordPress 3+.
No worries, though. All you need to do is add a few filters to your theme’s functions.php file, customize to your liking, and call it a day.
Change the Excerpt Length
function new_excerpt_length($length) {
return 20;
}
add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length');
20 is the number of characters in the above example, so change to whatever you’d like.
Change or Remove the Default [...] Text
function new_excerpt_more($more) {
return '[.....]';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');
If you’d like to get rid of the [...] completely, just remove the brackets and everything in between the ” marks above. You can also customize this filter to insert a nice “Read more” link at the end of your excerpt.
Add a Read More Link to the Excerpt
function new_excerpt_more($more) {
global $post;
return '... <a href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">Read the Rest...</a>';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');
Customize away!
I Broke the Cardinal Rule of Blogging
For the longest time I’ve preached the following to my clients:
“Never let your blog become stale! Updates are so important! The last thing you want to see when you visit a blog is that it’s years out-of-date.”
As of today, it’s been over a year since I posted here. So to those good people that I preached the above to, I owe you an apology. I still hold true to the belief that blogs exist to be used, and used frequently and well. Unfortunately, this one has fallen out of date under my watch. That’s something I’m aiming to fix this Fall as Blueberry Ln. undergoes some long-needed updates and changes.
First and foremost, I’m happy to report that I’m in the process of bringing on board additional developers to help with the workload. The last year has been an incredible time of growth for the company, in both the number of projects and clients, and also in the lessons I’ve learned as a business owner. I’ve become a huge Shark Tank fan as well, and actually had an opportunity to meet the Sharks last Friday, which was a thrilling experience. More on that to come soon.
If you’re visiting Blueberry Ln. for the first time, welcome. If you’re about to apply to work with us, go ahead and mention that you read this post in your application. I’ll be happy that you know a little bit about the last year of my life, and I’m eager to learn more about you as well.
Big thanks to all our clients (a.k.a. awesome people) that inspire me on a daily basis in addition to keeping the lights on. Can’t wait for the next chapter! Stay tuned, it’s going to be exciting.
Andrew
