Customizing WordPress Child Theme

In this tutorial we will create Custom Post Types and add variables and functionality to them. Also we will add some styling for more user-friendly display in the dashboard.

Having set up our basic Child Theme structure we will now proceed with the customization. But before that we will do some basic WP configuration and go through the settings. You may be used to building WordPress based sites and therefore you may have some habits in as much as settings and configuration are concerned.

Semiomantics XO Custom Magazine for WordPress

Here is what I do in the dashboard:

1. Trash and permanently delete the Hello World Post.

2. Delete the default Links.

3. Set Permalinks to: /%category%/%postname%/

4. Under Settings General enter Blog Name and Tagline; for the purpose of this exercise I use  as a Title: WordPress TTP and as a Tagline: Tips, Themes and Plugins

5. Add some content to test content display by importing an RSS feed using a plugin such as Feedwordpress. I pulled into a new category called Blog the feed from my author-blog at:

http://yorgonestoridis.com/feed

We have set up a basic child theme for the purpose of modifying and customizing the Parent Theme. Creating structural modifications such as creating Custom Posts and Taxonomies are not strictly speaking theme relevant but should apply to all themes or as the case may be, to multiple themes in a Multi-user installation.

For this reason we will lodge the file which defines the custom posts outside any specific theme folder but inside wp-contents/themes.

We create a file called posttypes.php in wp-contents/themes. This file serves to define our custom post types and the way they integrate into the WP architecture.

In order to include the new Post Types in our Child theme, we include the posttype.php using an include function. This we doby adding a new file to our child theme; this file we call functions.php.

As you know, every WP theme contains a functions.php file; when creating a child theme which needs to expand the functions existing in the parent theme, then we just add a file with the same name, ‘functions.php’ to the child theme and append the functions defined in the parent theme.

Note: functions.php of the child theme does not override existing functions in the parent theme as is the case with styles (‘style.css)!

PHP allows us easily to include files in a script with the ‘include’ function and then by adding the URL to the file you wish to include.

Our ‘functions.php’ file will look as follows:

<?php
include_once (ABSPATH . 'wp-content/themes/posttypes.php');
?>

Please note that we use the ABSPATH function to construct the URL as the normal url path

 url(".../themes/posttypes.php") 

does not work here.

Save functions.php into your Child Theme Folder.

In order to set up our post types we proceed step by step:

1. Set up Custom Post Types
2. Add advanced Variables to Post Types
3. Add advanced custom post type functionality
4. Change the Menu Position (Dashboard) of the Custom Post Types
5. Add custom post type icon

Custom Post Types allow to separate different content from the traditional blog content. Blog content usually is edited as Posts and Pages, whereas Pages (static content) can be organized in a hierarchical way and posts are sorted by categories and tags. In order to display static content (pages) using customized layout, we can create different page templates easily.

Custom Post Types allow to sort content by Posts and Custom Post Types whereas custom post types are similar to posts but using custom taxonomies and as the case may be custom layouts or design adapted to the content. A typical example is a single product page from a shop compared to a single post page on the blog section of the website.

For the purpose of our exercise we will create 3 Custom Post Types

• WordPress Tips
• WordPress Themes
• WordPress Plugins

Setting up post types is relatively easy; while we could use plugins to create custom post types, I think hard-coding is a more solid and professional way of creating them. To create a new Custom Post Type we just need to add a few lines of code to the functions file or in our case to the abstraction file at posttypes.php which will then be included int the functions.php as per above where we have added the include function into functions.php.

We will create now the 3 Custom Post Types whereas the code used for each of them is the same except for the post type names and the function names.

To create the first post type, edit posttypes.php and paste in:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{
$args = array(
'label' => _x('WP Tips'),
'singular_label' => _x('WP Tip'),
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

Save the file.

At the top we type a comment explaining what the following code is all about (Add new Post Type for WP Tips). Then we call the function in to WordPress with ‘add_action’ and at the bottom we register the post type. As you can see the function consists of a number of arguments which we will look into later ($args).

Check out your Dashboard now and you will see that the new post type is added to the menu just above ‘Appearance’.

To add new post types, you just need to copy and paste the above code and make simple changes to the name and labels of the post type.

The above post types work, however they are not well refined. For this reason we will add some more variables. As the new posts are still called “Post” in the editor for example we will need to relabel to display the real name of the post type. For this we will write a label variable which can take an array of labels and we thus relabel all instances of our Custom Post Type.

The variable we create with the array of labels looks as follows:

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

We will insert this piece of code just before our block of arguments and then change the arguments accordingly as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(

/*      'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*      'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

As you can see from the two commented lines, we have changed ‘label’ to ‘labels and defined with the variable from above ‘$wordpress_tips_labels’ and we have deleted the ‘singular label’ as it is replaced wby ‘singular name’ from the label variable.

For the other new post types it’s the same game, just copy and paste and change the labels accordingly.

Save posttypes.php and check it out in your dashboard.

You will now see all labels added and your site becomes a lot more user-friendly and less confusing.

We can define the functionalities of our new post types with an array under the variable ‘supports’; basically the ‘supports’ line defines which functionalities should be supported, i.e. which content should be displayed.

In our example, the line above looks like this:

'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')

When you go to your dashboard, and add a new WP Tip you will see the editor shows the ‘title’, ‘content’ and ‘comments’ fields.

While we can go crazy on adding supported functionality, we will here just look at some standard functionalities. To add more functionality we just need to append the array in the supports variable like so:

'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'

By adding the above functionalities to the supports variable, we get something pretty close to the standard post editor, since we add the author, excerpts and custom fields as well as the featured picture functionality.

Also we can add a new variable, such as ‘has archive’ and then name the archive, in our example ‘WordPress Tips’.

This archive variable allows us to create an index page just for the WP Tips post  types.

Our Code for the WP Tips Custom Post Type is as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(

/*      'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*      'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

Copy and paste with the necessary changes for the other custom post types and save the file.

Check it out from the Dashboard Menu and the Editor.

As per now, our custom posts menu in the dashboard is positioned just above appearance and below comments. As custom posts are similar to posts, we want to move the custom post tabs just below the Posts tab.

As you can see from our code above, the menu position is set to ‘null’. The value ‘null’ makes that the custom post types are added at the bottom of the first section of the dashboard menu.

Depending of where you want to position your custom posts, you will need to change the value ‘null’ to another value according to the below reference scale:

0 — at the very top
5 — below Posts
10 — below Media
15 — below Links
20 — below Pages
25 — below comments
60 — below first separator
65 — below Plugins
70 — below Users
75 — below Tools
80 — below Settings
100 — below second separator

As we aim the spot below “Posts” we will use the value ‘5’, which will result in

...

'menu_position' => 5,

...

If you want to set a particular order, you can also use 3 different numbers, like 4,5 and 6 respectively.

Do the modification inside the arguments of each post type and save.

By repositioning the custom post type menu items , we signal priority and importance.

Check it out from the dashboard and note that our custom posts are right below ‘Posts’ now.

In order to make our custom post types stick out from the menu and to add user-friendly visual identifiers, we replace the default icons with custom icons.

There are two sizes needed, 16px and 32 px for the menu and the page title area respectively.

I have created sample icons and psd files for your convenience: please download from HERE.

Decompress the downloaded rar file and copy the image folder into wp-contents/themes (as we had done with posttypes.php, as we want to make these images available to all themes.

To add these icons we introduce a new function to posttypes.php with a function batch including some css/html code for styling purposes:

// Add new Custom Post Type icons
add_action( 'admin_head', 'wordpress_icons' );
function wordpress_icons() {
?>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
#menu-posts-wordpress_tips .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_tips {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_themes .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_themes {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_plugins .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_plugins {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}

</style>
<?php }

Note the incomplete php delimiter at the end which is needed to switch back to php from css/html code.

At this stage, your posttypes.php looks as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{
$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(
/*        'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*        'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

// Add new post type for WP Themes
add_action('init', 'wordpress_themes_init');
function wordpress_themes_init()
{

$wordpress_themes_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Themes', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Theme', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Themes'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Theme', 'wordpress_themes'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Theme'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Theme'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Theme'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Theme'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Themes'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Theme found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Theme found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

$args = array(
'labels' => $wordpress_themes_labels,
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_themes'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_themes',$args);
}

// Add new post type for WP Plugins
add_action('init', 'wordpress_plugins_init');
function wordpress_plugins_init()
{

$wordpress_plugins_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Plugins', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Plugin', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Plugins'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Plugin', 'wordpress_plugins'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Plugin'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Plugin'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Plugin'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Plugin'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Plugins'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Plugin found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Plugin found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

$args = array(
'labels' => $wordpress_plugins_labels,
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_plugins'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_plugins',$args);
}

// Add new Custom Post Type icons
add_action( 'admin_head', 'wordpress_icons' );
function wordpress_icons() {
?>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
#menu-posts-wordpress_tips .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_tips {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_themes .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_themes {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_plugins .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_plugins {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}

</style>
<?php }

?>

Check it out from your dashboard and you should see something similar to this:

Custom Post Types with Custom Icons

Related posts:

1. How to build a Custom WordPress Site 2
2. How to build a custom WordPress Site
3. Custom Widgets for WordPress
4. WordPress 3.4 Beta
5. Facebook Strategy with WordPress

Build a Custom WP with Semiomantics XO

This post focuses on setting up our Main Theme and a Child Theme. For the purpose of this exercise we will use Semiomantics XO as the parent theme because it’s flexible, user-friendly and highly optimized. In fact you can use most any decent WP theme to follow this tutorial, namely the TwentyEleven which comes with the WP installation.

Semiomantics XO for WordPress — Custom Magazine

Like on any live site, our test site on BitNami allows us to add themes either from the Dashboard (upload the theme’s zip file) or by pasting the theme into the themes folder in wp-contents.

Access your BitNami environment using Windows Explorer and surf to the themes folder. You will see the same folders and files structure under htdocs as you are used to when accessing your WordPress folder on a server using an FTP client.

Folders on BitNamy WP Stack

In order to add Themes, we just drop theme folders into the ‘themes’ folder as per above. As you can see, I have amongst others) added my Semiomantics XO (the ‘xo’ folder under themes). XO will serve as the parent theme of the new website. Instead however of customizing XO directly, I will create a child theme which will contain all modifications. The advantage is clear: when an update or upgrade of the theme becomes available, the parent theme can be updated without destroying the child and restarting the customization job from scratch.

A WordPress child theme consists first of all of a Folder to which we add a style-sheet.

This style-sheet contains a commented header which defines the parent theme folder as well as other optional data and it usually imports the parent theme’s style-sheet with a simple line of code (no need to copy paste the whole style-sheet). Also we will add a screenshot which will serve as a thumbnail in the Themes tab of our WP Dashboard.

Style-sheet for Child Theme

As you can see above, I am editing my files using the free PSPad which is handy to edit the various files we need to develop.

1. Add a new folder to the WP Themes folder under wp-contents/themes; name it as you like your theme to be named, in my case: yorgo12

2. Create a new file called style.css using your editor and save it into the new theme folder.

3. Edit the style.css file by adding a commented section defining:

• Theme Name  (yorgo12 in the above case)
• Theme URI    (this is optional and can be your website where you may talk about your theme; in my case: semiomantics.com)
• Description    (Optional; I have added a simple description, but you may well describe your Child theme, for example: 3 column minimalist child theme for Semiomantics XO.
• Author:           (Optional; put your name.)
• Template:  This is important: put the FOLDER NAME of the parent theme, in my case xo.
• Version:          (Optional: I start with version 1.0)

You could add other data as some authors do, such as Author’s URI and more, but that’s not necessary.

NOTE: All the above information sits between comment tags (/*.….….*/)

Next, we import the style-sheet of the parent theme with the following line of code:

@import url("../xo/style.css");

I have then added a comment to remind that you should not edit above unless you know what you do.

Your style.css file reads now similar to the following:

/*
Theme Name:       yorgo12
Theme URI:        http://semiomantics.com
Description:      Child Theme for Semiomantics XO 12
Author:           Yorgo Nestoridis
Template:         xo
Version:          1.0
*/
@import url("../xo/style.css");
/* Edit here below*/

Save the file into the new Child Theme folder.

4. Add a Thumbnail

Usually the image represents a screenshot of the new site but it can also be a brand logo or any other image. Important: the image should be called ‘screenshot’ and be in png format to fit into WP. Use image size 300px x 225px for best display.

screenshot.png

Drop the image into the Child Theme folder.

Let’s now activate our new Child Theme from the WP Dashboard under Appearance/Themes.

What you will see is an out of the box XO when looking at the front-end of the site.

Having set the base for our custom development, we will start now to adapt the site to the needs of the hypothetical customer. Continue reading the next post.

Related posts:

1. How to build a custom WordPress Site
2. Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts
3. How to make WordPress Themes Responsive
4. WordPress Themes and Development
5. WordPress 3.4 Beta

We are looking at 4 essential elements needed to make money with your blog.

Where there are no visitors, there is no money. Traffic will depend on how well you communicate the existence of your content or how well you promote your blog. Some of the most used ways to bring visitors to our blog are email, search engine optimization, aggregators, social networking, wod to mouth. In short: all means of communication are good to make people aware of our blog or a blog post.

While the first task of your content is to be noticed by search engines and spiders in order to be indexed and listed in the most appropriate way, the second task is to provide your reader content of interest and value.

The indexing and listing makes it possible for people to find your posts when they search for information, solutions, benefits or for whatever they may type into a search box.

Once they are on your site, the quality of you content will decide on your success; it can build trust, inspire authority and most importantly, it can trigger people to help you promote your blog by sharing the post or URL with friends.

As a publisher, you want to optimize the mix of content and advertising. Many studies exist about how much space to allocate to ads and where to place commercial content. In fact there are no general rules as the optimization will depend on your topic and targeted readership and what your visitors expect (and are used to).

One rule however seems to make its way: don’t exaggerate! Too high density of ads annoys your visitors, namely if they came to your site for its content. A few well placed ads are more efficient than a page displaying ads and pop-ups all over the screen.

This is the technical aspect of your venture. A website is a publication and you are a publisher. Your Publishing framework can help you to better promote you content and to display content to your audience in a more attractive and eye catching way. The framework is also responsible for the first impression based on your choices for a layout and style  (colors, images, graphics, fonts and so on).

Blog for Money

You framework is the technical back bone of your site as well. It can contain all sorts of features which automate processes and make your life easier. Your advertising features and mechanisms can be part of the framework and run on a set and forget base.

There are many ways to display ads or to add commercial content to your site. We will post about a whole array of means at your disposal in our next post.

We will spend the coming week-end at the Ycademy Online Seminar where we will build a Framework which is optimized for delivering ads to our target audience. We will report about the event next week.

Related posts:

1. Make Money with YORGOO Press
2. Google Top 10 Make Money Strategies
3. How to Make Money with Images
4. Google Top 10 Formula
5. Ycademy Online Seminar BIG NEWS

Is your shop ranking on Google Top 10? Under a relevant keyword?

Can Search Engine Users find your shop on Google Top 10 when looking urgently for a product?

Semiomantics has been tuning sites for top 10 performance for years and while things become more complex online, a new Content and Ads delivery system which can be used even by a complete newbie has been developed based on the huge experience gained over time and from daily practice.

On June 30 the new Script, YORGOO Booster, will be officially released to the public. However we will train a handful online marketers, newbies and pros during the coming week-end to understand Search Engine Marketing and the use of the new script.

The Ycademy Online Seminar, taking place this coming week-end will deal with YORGOO Booster and with all the elements it can transport and deliver right to the Top of Google.

You will be amongst the first owners of a new kind of a marketing web site.

You will be granted 100% resell rights to this unique product.

And of course you may gain some additional knowledge about Online Marketing and Publishing.

Tickets cost $50 (with the usual discounts for Ycademy pros)

There is only a small number still available (below 5 as far as I am aware of).

There will never be any additional resellers for this product, guaranteed.

Tickets available from HERE

(Contact Bianca Gubalke: bianca (at) ycademy.com

Related posts:

1. Google Top 10 Ranking by YORGOO Booster
2. Google Top 10 Formula
3. Google Top 10 Ranking for your Ads
4. Google Top 10 Make Money Strategies
5. WordPress Hosting with ChiHosters

If you don’t need a whole shop, here is a simple solution to create quickly a shopping cart on your site where interested visitors may order multiple products. This cart can be added to posts, pages, widgets or anywhere in the php script.

This is a demo test only! Please read this post at YorgoNestoridis.com to see the demo.

Service 1
[wp_cart:Service 1:price:100:end]

Service 2
[wp_cart:Service 2:price:200:end]

Service 3
[wp_cart:Service 3:price:300:end]

Cart and Check out

Click on one or more buttons and check your cart on top of the page. You can manage orders and check out with PayPal.

The feature can come in handy even if it may need a tweak to automate fulfillment.

• simple shopping cart to email address

Related posts:

1. Ycademy Online Seminar BIG NEWS
2. Ycademy Seminar: How to Build an Online Business
3. Make Money with YORGOO Press Seminar
4. Dealing with Images on your Blog
5. How to Build an Online Business 5

We have reached the stage of implementation and we will start by building a Business Portal. Different considerations will guide our choices.

In view of the Target Market (South Africa) we will register and set up a local domain for the main business web site. The site will have a portal function and link to the various business branches represented each by its own website.

Structured portals or directories usually are not very Search Engine efficient. For this reason we use CMS Software with high publishing power.

A second important issue concerns local partners. We want to provide prospects as from the beginning with local contacts.

We have registered the domain yorgoo.co.za. As YORGOO is our Brand in the global market, used to make advanced technology available to a large public and to provide free services, we want to profit from eventual synergies resulting from the established reputation of YORGOO Enterprises.
The Website will be built on a customized Semiomantics Business Site Script. We are using an adapted magazine type layout for user friendly navigation and we will add some niche sites lodged on sub-domains for targeted publication (Semiomantics YORGOO Blaster and the future YORGOO Booster type of sites).

To start with, we will work with two extremely competent Partners in South Africa. Bianca Gubalke, living in Noordhoek, off Cape Town and Hanno Coetzee from the Garden Route Area. We will profile our partners in a later post.

Besides YORGOO.co.za,we have registered and put under construction a few other domains and sites such as Garden Route Publishing, Hosting South Africa and a few others which are not yet online and which we will list here as soon as available to enable you to follow the progress.

Related posts:

1. How to Build an Online Business 2
2. How to Build an Online Business
3. The Garden Route goes Live
4. Business Market Watch London Evolution
5. Garden Route Great Brak River

YN — Working from Home is an important keyword on all big search engines. On Google there are over 100 million search returns on Working from Home. If you add to it the word “news” and make it “Working from Home News”, Google returns over 400 Million results.

Interestingly on the News related Working from Home term, there are next to no advertisers. Work from Home and Working from Home are the privileged keywords of the traditional Home Business Industry.

Zo Nicholas’ Publication, Working from Home News is full of interesting content for Work from Home Aficionados. One of the reasons is in the fact that Zo has a huge experience and knowledge which she is willing to share on her site.

Lack of knowledge, lack of experience means loss of time and money. Most home business developers commit the same errors, namely when it comes to online marketing. Take the shortcut and pass by Zo’s site to improve your online performance, it’s worth while.

Working from Home News on Google

(Note there are 441,000,000 search returns and we aim top 10)

One of the most important tips I found on Working from Home News is: start working on your own visibility instead of just booking Google Ads. Google Ads are a great tool, however they are extremely expensive when they are not accompanied by an attractive landing site. Note: it’s not a landing page but a landing site!

Lead generation has changed over time and while a simple pop-up with an ‘opt-in here’ box was enough a few years ago, we need today more sophisticated tools and environments which inspire confidence and trust.

What the Feedback records do for EBay sellers, do Google rankings and listings for most other environments. A bought spot on Google’s top 10 page of the targeted keyword can never be the equivalent to an authority site on the organic top 10 listing on the same page.

Replicated landing pages have become about useless and yet some people have only realized since we have an economic crises that you need a landing page at all instead of sending people directly to a product or business page. Sorry to say, but you have missed the train and you are just about to miss the next train.

Today the world is shaped by social networks. Users of Facebook and such like are used to a certain comfort and an attractive interactive environment, for most the only way to imagine socializing online. Sending Facebook users to a landing page with traditional “work from home fire your boss” slogans is inefficient and a waste of time. To the contrary, it’s destructive when it comes to the relations you have built in your social network.

We have been running permanent tests on advertising online for over 5 years and from our own experience we know that advertising is not a one-way road and it is not a war you can fight with just one arm.

Nowadays we need to combine our strategies in a much more thought through way to use our advertising dollars in the best possible way. The single one strategy with an increasingly growing importance is your personal authority outside of the social network environment. Business is not done and deals are not closed on social networks but in your own external environment. Your website must therefore beat Facebook anytime!

Social Media Marketing is about meeting people in social networks and getting them out of the social network to close a deal. It only works if you provide an inspiring site, a site which confirms and builds additional trust and confidence.

Objective bench marks about how trustworthy you are, are nonexistent except if you can show positive feedback (blog comments), independent editorials about you on Google (looking up the site owners name on Google, the suggested business opportunity’s company name and related topics) and yet that is just an indication. You may try to look at performance records, visible presence, and more and yet nothing will ever equal the personal experience people have with you by dealing with you OVER TIME.

Having said the above, we can deduct that online you have many entries, many places you go to and you communicate through; but in the end you have only one reputation to lose. The same is true for your business opportunity. Mixed reputation records are the best killer of a business online; would you buy from a seller with a positive feed-back record of 70% only on EBay?

Or, would you join a business where 3 out of the top 10 Google entries talk about spam, lawsuits or fraud? You probably would not even join if 90% only are flawless. Think about EBay’s standards where over 98% of the feed backs need to be positive to keep Power Seller status.

How about if Google creates even a recommended search category for Scam under your business name, or if you are claiming to sell ‘natural’ food supplements and Google comes up with a recommended search for side effects or another doubt inspiring category ‘does it work’?

Would you sign up with a company corresponding to the above profile? Seriously?

Herbalife Image on Google

My point is not to judge Herbalife here or to take position about the quality of any products or business opportunities. My point is: the internet is one big town and you have only one reputation to preserve or to lose. If you are suffering from a mixed image, your reputation is harmed. Some companies and individuals do not attach enough importance to their image online and wonder why their popularity online is not what it appears to be in a closed vase environment offline.

Would you want to associate your name with a company or business opportunity which shows signs of hampered reputation on the most simple Google search returns? Can you afford to spend your time and money to fix the reputation of your Merchant and to convince your prospects and customers that what they see online ‘is not true’; can you really afford it?

The real issue is that Your Reputation and the perceivable reputation of the Business you represent or are a distributor of will impact directly on your sales figures. Herbalife is probably not an online opportunity, otherwise they would take care of their online reputation. The strategy is: grab people online and drag them to a low-tech one to one environment to close deals. The internet in any case would not help here as transparency becomes a stumbling block.

The way to sell is by selling yourself first. Don’t count on anyone else. Your reputation sells and with your reputation you sell anything! A modern Working from Home enterprise has the absolute freedom to choose sell any product or service to sell: sales are linked to YOUR relationships and less on the reputation of the merchant or the product you sell. The power is on your side not on the merchant: I therefore cannot understand, how so called business opportunities where you have to pay for a license, can survive, if elsewhere the wind has turned long ago to a situation where you are paid to promote a company or their products instead of having to pay for doing so.

Working from Home is a brilliant idea. Be proud to belong to this industry; the sales power is with you and depends on the relationships you are able to build online or offline. The rest is secondary.

Working from Home News will provide you with information, ideas and inspiration, a great site with great content!

Yorgo Nestoridis

PS: Working from Home News is built on YORGOO Press with the aim to offer visitors an interesting, stimulating and interactive (landing) environment.

Related posts:

1. Working from Home News
2. Social Network Marketing with YORGOO
3. YORGOO Daily Mail March 30, 2009
4. YORGOO Press Concept Improvements
5. YORGOO and Semiomantics launch YORGOO Press

Banner Rotator for Semiomantics

I know, you have seen them all and there is nothing exciting about banner rotators … until you see the new Component we use in Semiomantics scripts:

This rotator can be customized for sidebars, posts, pages, headers, footers … you name it.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Semiomantics Flash Components for Ycademy May Seminar

The upcoming Ycademy Seminar is focusing on Flash, Flash Components and user experience enhanced by Flash. The Seminar is designed for Website Designers and Developers, who want to take their skills to the next level. Find out more from HERE.

Flash Components by Semiomantics

Flash is releasing a plethora of flash components this month. While they are originally designed to be used namely with Semiomantics XO and News Cast scripts, they can be used on any website. Check it out in the Semiomantics Shop later this month.

Ycademy Seminar Participants will be introduced to the use of one of the most exciting components. It’s the unique Semiomantics Accordion which in fact is more than just an accordion; it’s also a sideshow, a menu, a slider … most anything you want to make out of it.

Now this is something: you can even test the sideshow by clicking on the button at the bottom right.

The Semiomantics Accordion is probably the best out there since its development is based on the second best :-).

As you see, you can load it vertically or horizontally,  you can modify the number of images, even the effects and much, much more. You see an autoplay version and you can play with the mouse on the images … just try and find out what this script jewel can do for you.

Join tonight’s Call at YorgoTalk to find out more about the Ycademy May Seminar.

PS: The Semiomantics Accordion is included in the Seminar ticket price:-).

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Ycademy Seminar May 29-30, 2010

The use of Flash components in Web Design is popular and increasingly requested by customers. Flash is used to enhance the user experience by adding dynamic content, media and interactivity to a website.

Goals

The Ycademy Seminar will focus on understanding flash basics and Flash Editors and Converters for the purpose of manipulating flash components and to build them into web sites.

Topics and Workshops

1. Introduction to Flash and its use in modern web and media design

2. Flash Pro

The basic features of Adobe Flash Pro CS4 or 5 and Workshop: Symbols, Graphics, Actions – Workshops

3. Flash Components

Basics and Workshop: add a flash component to Semiomantics XO.

4. Flash Template Editing

Basics and Workshop: Edit Semiomantics Evolution.

5. PowerPoint to Flash Conversion

Workshop: automate the conversion using a PowerPoint plug-in and embed the result in a blog post.

6. Flash Site Builder

Workshop: After the intro builder, let’s expand the exercise to build a flash website.

Prerequisites:

Flash Pro CS4 or CS5

Materials

All materials, scripts and literature are included.

Price

Tickets: $80

Ycademy Pros: $25  (the Discount code will be sent to you)

Please Register from HERE

After registration, contact Bianca (bianca -at- ycademy.com) to get download links for the course materials as they become available.

Information:

Join our call tonight to get more details.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.