WordPress Tutorials about My Designs
Ingredients for a Successful Homepage
January 31, 2011
Your homepage is the most important page on your website, the page the majority of your website visitors will see first. You need to include snippets of your most important information here, making sure the main info is ‘above the fold’ ( this means you should be able to see it on screen without having to scroll down the page).
- Print Homepage Planning Checklist below to plan your homepage
- Download Homepage Design Wireframes to mockup a layout for your website
- Checkout some Sample Homepage Designs below to get the ideas rolling
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Purchase this tutorial – “Ingredients for a Successful Homepage”.
Available to download as a pdf file immediately.
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Flickr Photos in Website Design
September 19, 2010
Flickr is a photo sharing website which when integrated with WordPress adds a new dimension to your website layout.
Flickr photos from Orbis users on the Orbis website homepage.
As you add new photos to your Flickr account, they appear in the designated spot on your pages and keep your website looking fresh and interesting. Using the flickrRSS plugin means you can have your most recent Flickr images displaying across your homepage, in your website banner, in your sidebar or any other location on your website. I use Flickr to display screenshots of all the websites I’ve designed (see latest in my right sidebar) so it isn’t just limited to photos, although photos of local places on a tourism related website looks fantastic.
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WordPress Theme for Real Estate
June 23, 2010
WordPress and real estate are a match made in heaven especially when you start with a WordPress theme made especially for Real Estate like the AgentPress Theme from StudioPress.
View the new goodGround Real Estate website…
Multiple Categories
You can write property listings (blog posts) under as many different categories and sub categories as you like. They all fit seamlessly into the website’s navigation and can then be searched or viewed by category, sub-category or keyword. Adding the Multiple category selection widget means many categories can be searched at once. Eg. Price, Location, No. Bedrooms etc. The Agent Press theme lets you show an image and content summary for each category. Click on photo below right.
Easy Photo Uploading
Upload multiple photos to a property listing all at once and click ‘Insert Gallery’ button to add them to the post. Sizes are setup in your administration so resizing is automatic and you get a professional looking gallery on each listing in minutes. With one click you select a main photo to represent each listing and this appears on your homepage and category pages. Click on photo right.
Multiple Authors & Access Levels
WordPress can handle any number of different users with varying levels of access creating and/or publishing new listings. By adding an author box (see image below), you add an agent’s photo and details to every property listing. You can also separate each author’s feed to show properties by agent. Access levels can allow users to publish new posts, only write new posts or only edit their own posts – the combinations are endless.
Superior Search Engine Optimisation
WordPress publishes blog content as a feed so search engines can easily index any new listings as they appear. Each post allows you to add custom titles, permalinks, meta descriptions, keywords and tags pertaining that listing. Pretty permalinks mean that the website address of each and every page/post consists of keywords (not random letters & numbers).
Automatic Promotion of your Listings
Adding plugins such as Sociable, Twitter Tools and Other Category Posts let you and your readers easily promote each and every listing. Your feed can be linked to an email newsletter to automatically send new listings to your subscribers once a day, once a week or once a month. Setup one newsletter or one for each category or agent.
Why Use AgentPress?
Here are just a few of the things which make AgentPress the best choice:
- Set any number special fields to appear on every post (see image below)
- Show special properties in slideshow on homepage (make this part of a promotional package)
- Promote more special properties on the homepage
- Write a blog with tips and news for sellers and buyers
- include a second navigation bar showing main categories
Purchase the AgentPress theme here.
Other Plugins Used to Enhance Agent Press
- Multiple Category Search Widget
- My Favourite Posts plugin
- List posts by author
- Genesis Simple Sidebars
- Gravity Forms on sidebars
Change Your Website for a Promotion
April 3, 2010
These days, there’s a whole generation of people (including myself) who visit a website to find products and services or just to check things out before they ever visit a shop or purchase a product.
If you’re spending time and money on catalogues, sale flyers and print advertising, don’t forget to add promotions, sales, events and new products to your website too. Adding graphics or changing colours on your homepage, header or sidebars wont take you or your web designer long. Make sure you write a post too for search engines.
Promotions on Your Website
Here’s a screenshot of what we changed on the Evergreen Garden Centre website to promote their annual plant sale. Visit www.egn.co.nz for a live demo (until end of March).
Web Versions of Your Graphics
By getting web versions of your promotional graphics when you get your print graphics done you will save heaps of time and money. Ask your graphic designer, web designer or printer for the following:
- PDF versions of all catalogues and flyers (these can be viewed in Acrobat)
- A 72dpi screenshot of all catalogues and flyers (include on your blog post or homepage as a teaser and link to downloadable file)
- A square graphic for your sidebar (72dpi, either 125 pixels x 125 pixels or 250 pixels x 250 pixels depending on the size of your sidebar)
- A banner graphic for your header (72dpi, approx 400 pixels x 100 pixels depending on the space on your website header not taken up by your logo) [Read more]
Create a Video Blog with WordPress
July 30, 2009
This basically boils down to posting video clips on your website instead of (or in addition to) writing blog articles. These can be your own videos shot on your digital camera or relevant clips filmed by others and sourced from YouTube or similar sites.
See a Video Blog in action at www.schoolschoralfestival.co.nz;
Why Video Blog?
If a picture speaks a thousand words, then video speaks millions. Think of the time you could save…
- Instead of a detailed product manual, upload a video showing how to assemble or use your product
- Instead of writing about an event/gig, video it and post to your website
- Instead of descriptions and photos of a finished project, video it and post
- Instead of writing about how beautiful your local area is, video it and post
Use a Video-Friendly WordPress Theme
If you’re planning on posting many videos to your blog, this is the way to go. The best video-friendly theme I have found is Tubular Theme by Studio Press.
See Tubular theme in action at www.schoolschoralfestival.co.nz [Read more]
