The plugin in question is called TinyMCE Valid Elements and by downloading and installing it, you can stop the WordPress editor from deleting your iframe code completely. Here’s a short guide:

1. Download the plugin and upload it to your wp-content/plugins directory (you could also install through the WP dashboard’s native plugin installer)
2. Once it’s been installed go to your “Tools” tab (the plugin’s site says to go to Manage, but for me it was inside of the Tools tab, I’m running WordPress v 3.0.4)
3. Underneath “Tools” you’ll see link to the Tiny MCE Valid Elements plugin, click it.
4. Once inside of the plugin’s config screen, you can add elements which you want WP to recognize as valid, thereby stopping it from deleting them from your posts. Add iframe.
5. But you’re not done yet! You need to add the attributes of this element that you want WP to recognize as valid as well. For a Google Map, the attributes are: width, height, frameborder, scrolling, marginheight, marginwidth and src.
6. Hit “ctrl + F5″ to refresh your cache and you’re done!
7. Now you can go to the post or page containing the map and edit like there’s no tomorrow without fear of losing your iframe.

Hope that was helpful. Huge props to engfer for creating this awesome plugin.

See the site in action here.

Content

In concert with the client’s goals, we separated the site’s content into two main categories; static and dynamic. While some information on the site didn’t have to be changed often (static), Dr. Chou wanted an area where she could continually update (dynamic) and discuss her professional thoughts on Periodontics. She also wanted to be able to upload studies of cases which would display detailed before & after shots of procedures she has performed, alongside textual descriptions. Because of these needs, we created the Journal and Case Studies categories, both of which can be easily updated by the client herself. The Journal contains up-to-date posts by Dr. Chou, while Case Studies displays a slide show of captioned images (warning! these are pics of actual medical procedures, with blood…and stuff…).

Design

While a website of this kind is, in essence, an online advertisement or brochure, we approached the design of this site slightly differently to others, wanting to inspire confidence and not be overbearing with graphics or colour. This was in line with the client’s vision for a site which would advertise her skills and services, but would not cheapen her profession by becoming like a billboard. Because of this, we felt that the stoic professionalism of say, a medical journal, was a perfect fit for the project. This was achieved by using grey tones, a touch of blue, clearly legible serif and sans serif fonts, and top notch photography.

Power to the client

As with most of our projects, we developed the site with an open source development solution, in this case the one and only WordPress. This enables Dr. Chou to use the exceptional back end interface to make changes to her site, whenever she likes. As usual, we delivered the site with a step-by-step guide and manual so that she will be able to reference this if she needs to. Even though we’re only a phone call away, it’s always nice to have something in your hands to read, isn’t it?

So, you’ve got a website already. You’re pretty happy with it, its working, getting visits every day, people are learning about your business and your product, everyone’s happy right?

Perhaps.

Let’s go a little deeper. Could your site be doing all these things for your business in a more efficient and ultimately more productive way? Could it reinforce your brand image more effectively and consistently? Could it be securing even more leads and connections for your business? In a nutshell; is your current website really fulfilling its true potential? If you’re unsure about the answers to any of these questions, then you need to seriously consider a site redesign.

The web is a constantly changing, evolving medium. Because of this fact, websites need to evolve along with it in order to stay relevant. If your website fails to adapt to its new environment, then you will almost certainly be lagging behind the competition online, more and more, year after year. But what do you need to change in order to stay competitive? What new capabilities can be harnessed to benefit your particular business in your chosen industry? And how do you ensure that your new site remains fresh for as long as possible? Of course, these are complex questions that can’t be answered in full detail here, but what we can tell you is that there are three main areas to consider when you finally decide to go ahead with a redesign. These are Design, Coding & SEO and Social Media.

1. Design

Think of your website like a car. While your car gets you from A to B, your website takes users from their chairs into your brand, into your business, your world. If your users have a choice between a new sports car, or an old beat-up lemon, which one do you think they would take for a spin? Of course the sports car. But remember, design isn’t just about flash over performance. Maybe the absence of an on-board computer made that lemon more reliable? Good web design blends style and flair together with ease-of-use, good information organization, techniques to make you appear more frequently in Google or any other search engine (SEO), and an adherence to Web Standards to name a few. Your site’s design must also reinforce your brand and boldly display your company image. Further on from this, your website should be a representation of both the current state of your business, and where its headed. It should tell your visitors as much about the company today, as it does about its future. Remember, this is the face you are showing to the world, if it doesn’t represent who you are, what you do or what you are selling, then how can you expect your visitors to understand your business properly?

2. Coding and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The way your website is built directly affects how search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, find and display your website to potential visitors. There are many companies which specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which basically translates to “Getting You More Visits”. This of course is a vital element to your online presence that must not be overlooked. However, many ways to optimize your website for search engines should already be common sense to all good web designers and developers. In fact, what “optimization” really means in many cases is “coding your website the way it should have been done in the first place”. Now, while I must admit that I am not taking into consideration the idea of back links or other SEO methods, to be perfectly honest, additional SEO techniques cannot truly be effective if your actual site is poorly coded from the beginning.

The coding of your site also plays an important role in determining how long the current redesign will remain relevant. As mentioned before, proper adherence to global Web Standards are vital for any redesign (or initial design for that matter), as doing so will ensure that your site obeys the rules laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (the people who make the rules). So, just as solid houses are built on solid foundations, truly solid websites can only be built from solid coding practices.

3. Social Media Integration

The year is 2010, and quite frankly, if you don’t have a blog, facebook page and twitter account, then you’re already missing out on huge opportunities to increase your network, customers and clients. Furthermore, if your competitors are using these methods, then they are most certainly gaining leads through them, and a lead gained for your competitor is a lead lost for you. Scary right?

“But how is this related to my site redesign?” I hear you ask. Well, let me explain.

The true power of Social Media, comes from integration. Through integrating and cross connecting your Social Media Spaces (such as your blog, twitter account or facebook page) with your website, and indeed with one another, you are creating a network for your users to explore, learn from and interact with. Never before has the communication line between customer and seller been more direct or efficient. Through these connections you can potentially interact with all of your customers directly, at once, with a simple text message from your phone. Have a special offer on a new product? Through Social Media Integration, you can tweet this from your phone and have it display on your website, blog and facebook page, all at the same time. So to put it simply, with Social Media Integration, you’re presence on the web is no longer confined to a single website, it can become a network which people can access through other websites which have hundreds of millions of users.

So, what’s next?

Well, if you’ve read up to this point, chances are you’re in need of a site redesign. So who should do it for you? Naturally, my answer is going to be a little biased here (but you were expecting that right?).Creativelifeform delivers, implements and excels at each of the points above, on a daily basis. So if you are in need of a site redesign, or know of someone who needs one, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

On the other hand, if you have all these aspects integrated within your site already in that you’re happy with the design of your homepage, its coding and the social media aspects of your online presence, then don’t be fooled by someone trying to push a redesign on you. The web constantly changes yes, but that doesn’t mean your bank balance needs to reflect these changes all the time.

Having worked for an eCommerce company in Tokyo, I understand how frustrating it can be for sellers to get online. All you want is a simple, low maintenance-cost solution that lets you sell your stuff and doesn’t rip you off. Well, how does free sound for upkeep costs?

I first found out about Magento while it was still in Beta back in early 2008. Even then it looked really promising, but I wasn’t prepared to delve into its core until I could actually use it professionally. Having seen it emerge out of the Beta stage some time later, I was delighted when Stephen and Katrina from Ubergoodness approached us with the desire to create an online grocery and health food store. They (like many others) had a bad experience with a paid eCommerce solution and really wanted to get a fresh start. I sat down with them and talked them through the benefits of choosing Magento and they were very interested, but what really made their jaws drop was when they realized they’d be getting all this functionality for free. That’s right, the Magento platform itself is totally free. Remember OSCommerce and its horrible 1996 style markup? Well you can forget it now because with its highly customizable front and back ends, excellent templating via XML and in-built content management system, Magento truly blows it, and many other paid shopping carts, right out of the water.

After we completed the custom design and development of the store, Stephen and Katrina were able to easily upload all their products and run it themselves with only basic HTML knowledge. The only ongoing costs they pay are for hosting, and Ubergoodness chugs along as smooth as a serving of warm organic butter. Sounds nice right?

The other day I stumbled across Typekit. Founded by a San Francisco based startup called Small Batch. This service oozes professionalism and class, and its the kind of idea that I think might actually, finally, solve the problem of lackluster typography on the web…maybe.

A little bit of research on the company shows that they are pretty serious about what they do, having made substantial contributions to the corner stone of every site online these days; Google Analytics. What they are doing with Typekit is approaching font foundries and (I guess) buying licenses to serve their fonts to anyone who signs up. They then distribute the fonts you select with your account to a nominated domain, and voila; you can set tags, classes or ids which will have custom font-family properties given to them by a small slice of javascript code which you include in the head tag of your page. Its that simple. Massive kudos go out to them for their UI design and the methods they are using to implement their service. It really is top notch.

“But what about the fonts?” you say. Well, of course they don’t have the big names on board yet (the service is relatively new), but after such a long time coping with about four different usable typefaces online, anything new is a breath of fresh air to me. My main concern at this point is how the deployment of the service works. There’s a limitation on the number of websites they will serve fonts to per account. If you want to place fancy fonts on your client’s website well, I guess you are going to be footing the bill for that. I’m not sure if many clients would understand the intricacies of good typography and why they have to pay more for something they can read fine for free. Then again, perhaps that’s just about focusing on making your pitches better. Also, its worth mentioning that they aren’t supporting all browsers yet; only IE, Safari and Firefox get Typekit love. It would be good to see Chrome creep into that list soon, I can’t imagine it would be too hard seeing that they’re already supporting Safari.

All in all, Typekit is a pretty awesome service. While I don’t think that the fonts in the Trial account are all that good, signing up did let me experience the pure simplicity and speed which they are offering, and honestly it did its job. I can definitely see myself upgrading to a paid account in the near future.