Hi Kathryn,
Thank you so much for the response.
I genuinely did not think anyone was going to get back to me.
Re: featured image thats too wide and tall, if only it auto cropped (responded) depending on ones screen size.
Re: advertising space do you recommend any plugins?
In any case, I am going to go through your suggestions and will return should I run into any trouble.
Once again, thank you for getting back to me.