Create a Watchlist of Favourite Posts
July 19, 2010
The ‘My Favourite Posts’ plugin lets your audience save a list of their favourite posts with one click. They can then login at any time and view their list as well as add/delete items.
Download ‘My Favorite Posts’ Plugin…
When you have hundreds of tutorials, property listings, shopping cart items and other types of blog posts on your website, it becomes more and more difficult to ensure that your readers can find the post they need quickly and easily. This way people can save relevant posts and listings as they browse, then review and link to them again whenever they choose.
Screenshot below shows Watchlist link and saved posts as seen by logged in user.
View Watchlist in Action [Read more]
WordPress Planning Checklist
October 16, 2009
If you are planning a new website using WordPress, here are some things to think about before you start. Planning or at least considering these will make the entire process easier and will ensure that you make the most of all of WordPress’ features and functionality. Plus, your website will be fabulous!
Design and Layout
Header - Logo and tagline, include ad banner or call to action
Sidebars
- 1 or 2, left or right, same on pages/posts/homepage or different
- What should be in them (recent posts, author box, social media links, twitter updates, newsletter signup, photo slideshow, YouTube video clip, graphics linking to other sections of your website)
Homepage – What should be on there (excerpts of certain categories, intro to business, featured content gallery)
Footer – What should be there (contact info, login button, copyright note)
Navigation
- 1 bar or 2, categories in a navigation bar
- What pages will you want in the navigation bar (what order, parent pages or child pages)
- Do you want a blog page with all categories or categories in the sidebar
- Do you want an Archive Page (grouped by categories, month, per post) [Read more]
Understanding Categories and Tags
June 17, 2009
You can use both categories and tags on your WordPress blog to group or describe the posts you write so it can be confusing to know which to use when. Both help your readers to find the information they are looking for. This post describes the differences plus different ways to use them on your WordPress website.
Screenshot showing categories and tags on the same blog post.
Categories
The categories on your blog are usually the main topics you write about or your different audiences. There should be a limited number and you should generally decide what they are going to be when you first setup your blog. They need to be displayed prominently in a categories widget on your sidebar, in a sitemap or as part of your website navigation as this is the primary way your readers will find posts of interest to them. You can see all my blog categories on my sitemap or on the sidebar of this and all my other blog posts. [Read more]
Downloads and Member Only Files
May 6, 2009
The WordPress Downloads Plugin allows you to upload files into categories you specify, then add them to pages and posts for visitors to download. Include product brochures, manuals and other documents on your website for your customers to download, saves you time, adds value to your products and improves customer service.
Why not add your:
- Forms
- Rules and Regulations
- Product Manuals
- Brochures & Flyers
- Vouchers & Specials Sheets
- Tips and Tricks
- Instructions
- Sample Pages
- Certificates and Awards
- Itineraries
This article will cover uploading files, displaying them on your website and turning them into member-only downloads.
Uploading Your Files
- Download the Downloads Plugin
- Activate the plugin inside your WordPress admin
- (You will see a new Downloads section appear on the bottom left of your admin nav bar)
- Setup categories for your download files under Configuration/Download Categories
- Click on Add New to upload a file
- Give your file a title, add the month and year under version, choose your file and select a category from the drop-down
- Click the Upload and Save button at the bottom
Creating HTML Email Templates
March 9, 2009
The Post Notification Plugin for WordPress allows you to customise the look and feel of the email newsletter your subscribers receive through the use of templates.
You can choose templates in different languages, text only templates, html templates or can customise an html template of your own to reflect your branding and website’s look and feel. [Read more]
E-Commerce Shop Inside WordPress
February 17, 2009
This amazing plugin turns your wordpress website from a self-managed website and blog into a fully functional (and customisable) online shop. Created by kiwis at Instinct, this has to be the easiest way to sell your products on your own website anywhere.
Once you have activated your plugin, an E-Commerce button appears on your admin menu. From here you can setup products to ship, products to download, registrations for courses, subscriptions and more.
Creating Product Pages
You create groups first to categorise your products, then assign each product to a group and simply click on the little shopping cart icon when you are creating a new web page and select that group for it to appear automatically on the page. See an example below on the new website I have just setup for Weekend Gardener magazine.
Sample Product Page
This is a product page showing all the products in the Quarterly Magazines group. The product listing includes a description (this can be extended), drop-down options (in this case whether it is a gift or not), a photo and the price. When you click on the Add to Cart button, your product appears in the shopping cart to the right of the page. From there you can add more products or checkout.
Other Websites Using WP E-Commerce
Blog Planning Notepad for the Holidays
December 17, 2008
In case you were thinking you couldn’t improve your website when on holiday this Christmas because you wont have a computer, I have created an “A4 Blog Planning Notepad” for you to print and take away with you.
A4 Blog Planning Notepad
You can save the Blog Planning Notepad to your computer by clicking on the image right or link below, then clicking the save icon in Adobe Acrobat. Once you have read the guide, print off several pages of the notepad and keep in an ideas folder for noting all your blog and news post ideas on.
There are sections on the notepad for planning your tags, categories, permalinks, images, links and more (all explained in the guide). Once you eventually publish your posts, file a copy of the actual post with your notes in your Blog Posts folder. I’ve included margins on the template so you can hole punch your pages for safe keeping.
