Brian Gardner

Starbucks addict. Sarah McLachlan fan. Maker of Rain. Founder of StudioPress. Partner at Rainmaker Digital. No Sidebar / Follow me on Twitter / Stalk me on Instagram

Written by Brian Gardner | March 14, 2017 | 2 Comments

Introducing the New StudioPress Blog

Well, it’s been a while since you’ve seen my byline around here at Copyblogger, but that’s for a few good reasons — I’ve had my head down and been working hard over at StudioPress (specifically, the all-new StudioPress Sites you’ve been hearing about).

If you’re interested in checking it out, you’ll see that the StudioPress site looks quite different from how it has in the recent past, and that’s because we’ve been making the experience over there the best we possibly can for our customers.

That, and we’ve been building the next generation of StudioPress.

Here’s what we’ve been up to …
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Written by Brian Gardner | August 17, 2016 | 8 Comments

Just Released: A New (Free) Way to Join the StudioPress Community

Want to know the best part of my job?

I have the privilege of gathering a community around our StudioPress products. I have the honor of helping people build businesses based on the products we create.

I didn’t set out for the place where I’ve landed. And yet today, I wouldn’t change a thing.

To be honest, I’m still kind of starry-eyed about the whole thing.

After all, it’s the unexpected events that give our lives meaning. And it’s the movements that grow organically that seem to be the most interesting.

The StudioPress community has been one of the most fascinating organically-grown movements I’ve ever been a part of.

And the newest podcast on the Rainmaker FM network, StudioPress FM, is going to celebrate this idea with every episode.

Read on to learn more about it.
Read More…

Written by Brian Gardner | February 12, 2013 | 0 Comments

Introducing Modern Portfolio: A Stunning New WordPress Theme for Photographers

Image of the Modern Portfolio Theme by StudioPress

Today we make good on our promise to build photographers and developers a professional, mobile-responsive WordPress theme that takes the guesswork out of portfolio website design.

Unresponsive websites are murder for freelancers who rely on viewable images to highlight their talents and services.

If your work looks great on a desktop monitor, but is difficult to view on a mobile device, your clients and customers get frustrated and click away (especially if they’re using a Retina display iPad).

Written by Brian Gardner | January 29, 2013 | 0 Comments

Introducing the Metro Theme for WordPress

With magazine-style websites running hotter than ever, I recently went to work with my team at StudioPress to design a new WordPress theme that captures the beautiful opportunities that wide-screens hold.

Have you ever opened a website on a wide-screen monitor and found it hard to view because it only took up a small part of the screen?

It’s like watching a TV show from the ’70s — in that old square format — on a beautiful new HDTV.

With the Metro theme for WordPress, we present our widest theme to date … with complete mobile-responsiveness.

Written by Brian Gardner | January 10, 2013 | 211 Comments

Claim Google Authorship for Your WordPress Website in 3 Easy Steps

Image of WordPress and Google+ Icons

Editor’s note: On August 28, 2014, Google ended their Authorship program. To discover what this means for you as an online content creator, check out this post by Sonia Simone.

Hopefully you’ve already caught the importance of Google Authorship, the mechanism by which Google’s search engine rankings can be influenced by Author Rank.

If you haven’t, Google Authorship basically amounts to the biggest shakeup in search since the link. It’s Google’s way of identifying the author of a piece of content to factor it as a signal of content quality.

We realize that most writers and online publishers don’t have tons of time to sift through excessively geeky posts involving underlying website code (rel= “author” or rel=”me” anyone?).

Written by Brian Gardner | July 31, 2012 | 53 Comments

6 Enduring Marketing Lessons from the Ironman World Championship

image of ironman race logo

Could you swim 2.4 miles? How about bike 112 miles? Or run 26.2 miles? What about doing all three, one right after the other?

Now, if you can imagine doing this in temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees, you’ll understand what truly makes an Ironman, as well as what defines the Ironman.

Every year a few thousand athletes compete in an endurance event called the Ironman World Championship which is held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. This isn’t for the faint of heart, and quite honestly, I classify these people as borderline insane.

But that’s what makes them so appealing and — to put it simply — awesome.