Craig is a senior at Liberty University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Paralegal Studies in May. A transplant to the Central Virginia area from Bethlehem, PA. He moved to Lynchburg in August 2008 for college. Craig’s customer service experience runs deep throughout his employment history. Over the past eight years, he has had the ability to learn and excel at customer service through a variety of different employment opportunities.

We look forward to Craig helping you determine what services offered by our company will fit your needs.

Contact Craig directly using the form below:

I’m in the process of updating my portfolio and would love to include your testimonial and link to your site.

Please either reply to this email OR visit http://vigilantwebsites.com/testimonials/

It should take less than 5 minutes and could end up paying off in better search engine results.  I’m only looking for 1 to 3 sentences about your experiences with the service I provide and if you find it as easy to use as I think it is.

As you can see the name has changed.

Same great service with bigger plans for expansion. I’ll be offering a cheaper service for people that want a simple and cheap solution to websites with a solution called “WordPress Multi-site” One where they won’t have to update their plugins or wordpress as it will be handled by us.

I’m on the hunt for some interns and will be meeting next week with some potential candidates. We are expanding our marketing efforts into 3 areas; Business and Industry, Politics and Campaigns, and Churches and Non-Profits and I’ll be sending out more info on that at a later date.

Thank You for your time and your business,
Kurt Feigel

Vigilant Website Development

Cpanel WordPress users has your site stopped displaying correctly? When you login are all your pages and posts GONE?

Don’t despair…not yet anyway…your database is likely just corrupted. It happens. It’s happened to me.

There are too many reasons to list why it happens. Usually the information was only half sent by your ISP or some site glitch occurred and then BAM! messed up database.

But you ask “isn’t my web guy supposed to backup my site”…NO! YOU are supposed to backup your site. Even the most amazing website geeks like myself can’t possibly backup 40 to 50 websites every month. I remind my clients often to do this. Do they? Most don’t and then I get contacted with frantic requests to fix what is broken.

First I’ll show you how to fix your wordpress site (if you can) and then I’ll tell you some good advice about backups:

This advice is directed at those using Cpanel Hosting:

Login to your cpanel (control panel)

Navigate down to the “Database” section:

Click the Icon that says MySQL Databases

That will take you here to the following screen.

Then click REPAIR DB below CHECK DB.

Now navigate to your Dashboard and see if your posts and pages are all back to normal.

Now navigate to your site? All Fixed? You are welcome! Glad I could help!

If it didn’t work then you have big problems ahead of you. Sorry.

NOW ON TO BACKUPS:

VERY IMPORTANT: You must run a backup occasionally.

Kurt’s Backup Rule x 2:

• Have it backed up 2 different ways (server, and site backup)
• Keep it in 2 different locations( online (server), CD or DVD Disk or Hard Drive)

From the Cpanel you can do a simple backup that will save all your post/pages info

Login to the dashboard: http://YourWordpressWebsiteHere/wp-admin
Click TOOLS
Click EXPORT

• export all content (it will save to computer)
  

This above is the minimum you can do. It will allow you to restore your pages, and posts, comments and a few other content items.

IT WILL NOT allow you to restore your theme, plugins, or any other customizations you done. ONLY a full database backup can do this for you.

There are backup plugins you can use (not sure I like these yet, even if they are automated you still need to make sure they are backing up) One of these was installed on a client site ( that I wasn’t hosting) and he had a problem. His plugins got messed up and wanted to just do an easy restore from the database. 4 hours later we had his site back up(mostly) The database plugin wasn’t doing the weekly backups like it was supposed to. We managed to use a backup from when it first setup. Back in January.

Another Option:

You can login to the cpanel and run all sorts of backups.

To login to the cpanel visit http://cpanel.YourWebsiteAddress.com
User: ?????
Pass: ?????

Navigate to the “FILES” section (3rd box down) and click the BACKUP icon.

Watch the video tutorial listed at the top of the backup page.

You can do a database backup here. Save it to your hard drive. AND then every quarter run a full site backup and save it to your harddrive OR to the server. Note: if you do the full site backup it may fill up your server as it should create a duplicate of your site.

Both of these will enable a full restore of the site if anything catastrophic happens.

• Servers are run by people and people make mistakes.
• Sites and plugins also make mistakes.

It’s rare but don’t rely on either of them. Safeguard your site content and all the hard work you put into it.

Backup Today!

Kurt Feigel

www.centralvirginiastudios.com

Updates:

Some Plugins work with DropBox (a FREE online file storage site) which will allow you to send your backups to another server http://db.tt/DGbTJcCW

I found a great plugin called BackWpup click this link and do the old school download, upload, install method. OR install it under the plugins, add new, feature built into wordpress.

Video Added:

I can setup automated backup on your WordPress site if you’d like. I can even setup remote backup for you that will store your backup files to a DropBox server. Let me know if you’d be interested in this service.

I’m sitting here watching my two year old. It just dawned on me that with the exponential growth of technology, the world we live in will be vastly different that the one he will inherit.

When I was two the personal computer didn’t exist and neither did the internet. My first exposure to computers was in 1991 through AOL and a 486mhz windows system running 3.1.  You couldn’t do much back then. There were chat rooms and email but that was about it. Fast forward to today and we have something that looks very different.  So looking ahead what will we see?  Will we finally see the emergence of AI? The technology is almost there. It’s just a matter of some new breakthrough we’ve yet to see.  Personally I’m looking forward to that. Imagine having a computer that would know and understand every aspect of your life. It would pay your bills for you, or at least remind you to do it. Imagine the breakthroughs in medical research that could come as a result of AI. A computer that can think for itself and process the massive amounts of data that is out there. Really, the possibilities are endless.  I’m also looking forward to some breakthrough in cybernetics. Personally I’d love to see a chip that would let us access the internet and email or make phone calls by just thinking it.

Sure these things are the world of science fiction today…but tomorrow they could be a reality. After all. Cell Phones were once fantasy, as were Jet engines, rockets, nuclear bombs, and lots of other things we have today.

It’s a dificult thing to accept the need for social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.

It seems like just yesterday that we were being told by the experts that we had to have a website. We then had two choices. Pay lots of money and get one of those experts to design us a site or do it ourselves. I’ve always been a DIY kinda guy and so over the years I’ve learned enough HTML to get by.

Now with the advent of FREE things like WordPress or Joomla anyone that can read can get a good website setup in minutes. But here is the Rub. It is no longer good enough to just have a website. Now these same experts and many new ones are telling us all about the importance of “social networking”.

We used to live in small communities and connect with friends and collegues. However, it seems the more that technology makes our lives “better” the less time we have to connect with friends.

Enter the world of  Twitter, Facebook, and more. We can now keep up with what our friends are doing in seconds. There are even programs like TweetDeck that let you view the information from multiple platforms right from the desktop. The search engines also love these technologies. For Example, I joined Twitter and within a week my profile is the second result that appears when people search for “Kurt Feigel”.

There are 2 main mistakes people make when getting involved with these marketing avenues.

1. They join them strictly for business
2. they try to sell from these platforms

People are on Facebook and Twitter primarily to connect with friends, family, and collegues or to keep up on current events. They join for a variety of reasons. Most of which does not include being sold stuff.  If we show up and start randomly pitching our products we are “crashing the party” as Perry Belcher would say.

If your going to get involved in Social Media and only a fool wouldn’t, then you need to use it in the manner that it was intended. If you want to sell people stuff then get them to subscribe to your newsletter or point them to your blog. But never, ever, ever, do it from your Twitter feed or Facebook Status. You’ll loose followers and crediblility.

WordPress why do I love thee?

There are so many reasons.

The main one is that it’s just so easy to use.The install takes around 5 minutes or less if you have Fantastico on your servers. I do.

Then there are the 6118 plugins for just about anything you can imagine. A plugin is an addon that you can use to add form/function to your wordpress blog.

There are the Themes both FREE and ones you can purchase. Over 900 of the free wordpress themes can be found here. In fact there are so many great WP themes that your head just might explode from looking at all of them and then trying to decide which one works best for you. Look at my choice of favorite themes at the tab above.

Finally there is the ease at which you can post content on and manage your website. The “Tags” and “categories” that help you visitors find what they want and help the search engines properly place your pages.  That alone is reason enough to jump for joy! In fact did you know that blogs actually “ping” the internet to tell it “hey check out this site there is new info” THATS JUST INSANE!

These are just a few of the many reasons I love WordPress and why you should too.

Search Engine Optimization

Is very important to your success on the internet.

I found this great article that has some good tips that I have us.
1. Increase the quality of your website by avoiding the most common SEO mistakes.

There are a few mistakes in an SEO of a website that you should avoid. These simple-to-follow guidelines are essential for the way your pages rank in search results.

2. Targetting the wrong keywords

You should carefully choose the keywords which you want to compete for. For example, if you are making a website for your local football team, you should not aim to be first for the “sport” keyword. The “sport” keyword is simply too general and there are already many old and well optimized websites that will always be ahead of you in the search results. You should find your own niche (keywords you rank for) and optimize your website for it.

3. Duplicate Meta tags

This is a common mistake among web designers. Meta tags should be unique and meaningful for each separate page. For your meta description, for example, you should use complete sentences as if you are describing your page to a friend. The page title, meta description and keywords should be different for each page. If they are the same, search engines consider them as duplicate content and rank you lower in their search result pages.

4. Missing Title tag

(KF NOTE: I’ve found this to be huge)

You should set a title for each one of your pages. It should be meaningful and relative to the actual content of your site. Avoid using titles longer than 60 characters. Search engines will simply ignore the symbols after the 60th character.

5. Website is entirely created with Flash without an HTML alternative

Although websites created with Flash can be very pretty and attractive, search engines cannot crawl them. Since they cannot index your content, you will not rank for the keywords you would like to. Therefore, you should create an HTML alternative of your Flash website and provide your visitors with the option to choose one of them. By doing this you will increase the usability of your website and improve the way search engines index it.
Continue Reading the article at the source

I feel like an expert having setup now 4 wordpress blogs in 7 days. This blog will be dedicated to tips related to Video production and Website Design as well as updates and information on Web 2.0 stuff like Twitter and Facebook

Computer Lockup!

So before all you mac people start harping on that nonsense of “shoulda used a mac” know that I used to have one and this kinda stuff happened with it also.

So I am editing and am working 30 minutes since the last save and am just about done with a wedding video. I have the video trimmed up and ready to roll when W H A M O! My editing program locks up. Grrrr. These are the times I think twice about what I do but then I realize that EVERYONE has problems with their stuff. I had problems like this when I was in the corporate world of Word and Excel so It shouldn’t surprise me.

So Back to the editing floor.

OYE!

Recently I did a wedding video in Charlottesville, VA

It was a very nice wedding at Virginia Baptist followed by a reception at the Glenmore Country Club located in Keswick, VA

I have filmed over 30 weddings. I lost count around a year ago. In all that time I have seen good food and some bad. I rarely have seen or tasted great food. Coming from California to the south has been a shock. People seem to think that places like Golden Corral are tasty. Personally I don’t like cardboard slathered in gravy but hey, that’s just me. I have also learned that the reason some places have kids eat free is it is the only way you will visit and by their atrocious food.

So wedding receptions are always a gamble and I am always curious as to what I might find.

The food on this occasion was AMAZING! The best I have ever had at a wedding and the best food I have tasted in over a year. Chef Jeff Daniels is an artist. Fresh Green Beans with sliced almonds, Twice baked potatoes stuffed with mushrooms, Acorn Squash (cooked so perfect you could eat the skin ) Herb Encrusted Chicken, and Salmon. Finished off with fresh fruit and the biggest blackberries I have ever seen.

If you are getting married and looking for an artist to provide food at your wedding, then the search is over. Check out www.tartancatering.com or call Tracey Hughes at 434-817-0522