From time to time, I get questions about how I start designing websites, and how I build custom WordPress themes for my clients. I’ve spent the better part of the last year trying to streamline the process of designing and launching a blog theme. The problem that I have is I tend to get a little carried away with trying to be perfect. Like most designers I start out with the basic tools…pencil and paper. I draw out the layout and figure out the basic positioning of all of the necessary elements before I even think about putting anything down in Photoshop. That drawing stays with me until the very end of the project, and sometimes even after just for reference.

How Does GrandmasterB Layout a Site for WordPress?

Recently, Forest from The Random Forest and Frugal Zeitgeist hit me up on Google Chat to ask me how I build a Wordpress theme and how I go from Photoshop layout to coding everything for Wordpress. Well, I know that I’m not the only designer/developer that works this way, but I build a simple HTML/CSS file that will serve as a template for the coding of the WordPress theme. In my opinion, there’s no reason to mess with all of the WordPress options and variables unless you have already solidified the design in it’s simplest form. I break down the design into the most simplest elements first:

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It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything new under the Question and Answers with GrandmasterB category, but today I received a great question in my inbox that I had to share with you all. The email was from my good pal Mike Cusden (you all know him as Cuzzy) from Cuzoogle. He had run his site through the Markup Validation script at http://validator.w3.org/ and it came back with quite a few errors and warnings, his question follows:

Hey GrandmasterB, I ran my site through the Markup Validator and it came back with a ton of errors. Are any of these errors fixable? And is it something that’s relatively easy to fix?

My first reaction was one of surprise, because every theme that I design and develop is run through to make sure that the code is 100% XHTML compliant before turning it over to the client. After taking a look at the output from the validator I could see exactly what the issue was and what needed to be fixed. For reference, I have pasted a copy of the report link here for you to follow along.

The problem that Cuzzy is having is that his theme code isn’t the problem, it’s the advertising code that he’s placed on the site. If you look at the errors that appear on the Markup Validation page, you’ll notice that the first error states the following:

Line 15, Column 107: cannot generate system identifier for general entity “MarketPlace”.
…om/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822/US/cuzoogle- 

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I skipped the Q&A last week in order to get some good questions rolling in the door and to find a good day of the week to commit to the feature post. I’ve settled on Thursdays for the Q&A with GrandmasterB feature; since it allows me to get things caught up over the weekend and more time to put together a clear and concise answer. Don’t forget to send me your questions and if your question is published you’ll get a free linkback from GrandmasterB and 100 EntreCard credits for your bankroll. Now onto the question for this week.

My boy Cuzzy (Cuzoogle.com) wrote me an email the other day asking me the following question:

I have recently started a new blog and want to set up a google site map. I downloaded the plugin and activated it but I am still having trouble getting my site map to work. It says I need to make sure the file is writeable and this was where I got lost. Can you help?

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For awhile now, I have contemplated doing a Q&A feature post that would address questions from my readers. I’ve been compiling some of the questions and answers that I think will help people out of a tight spot. These questions can be on any topic; from Photoshop questions to Wordpress issues, tutorial requests to general banter. I will try to answer each question as best I can and give you resources where you can find more help on a given topic. So without further ado…I give you Q&A with GrandmasterB.

Question From: Jamie
In one of your tutorials it says to place a guide at 400x and 400y. How is this done??? Please help.

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