Industry: Restaurant

URL: http://thedowntowncafe.com

Platform: WordPress

Services: Theme Development, Function Development, Custom Post Type, Contact Forms

Background: The client required a PSD-based WordPress theme with custom-post types for menu items, image galleries, and promotions.

PSD was converted to WordPress and made dynamic utilizing WordPress functions.

Industry: Blog

URL: http://gamedayboston.com

Platform: WordPress

Services: Logo Design, Layout, Theme Development, Function Development, Custom Post Type, Off-site Paypal Integration, API Integration

Background: The client required a blog based on New England sports teams, which could potentially be expanded to other areas.  The blog would also require integration with TiqIq and Amazon APIs, serving as a central hub for New England sports.

The project required a custom logo design, fluid layout, custom post-types for T-Shirts, Amazon API integration, Off-site PayPal integration, and additional customizations.

The WordPress theme was built and styled nearly from-scratch.

Industry: Sales

URL: http://questmarketing.com

Platform: WordPress

Services: Theme Customization, Function Development, Authorize.net Integration, Lightbox, Membership Integration

Background: The client wished to have an online market for both members and non-members with discount prices for those who had purchased membership.

Theme customization, page layout, and image integration were required. As well as integration of a checkout allowing for purchase through Authorize.net.  Without SSL integration, final purchase is off-site.

Industry: Sports Apparel and Fundraising

URL: http://teamfundup.com

Platform: WordPress

Services: Hosting Support, Theme Customization, WP E-Commerce Integration, Authorization Only Credit Card Processing, Custom Post Types, Custom Metaboxes, Automatic Points Tally, Lightbox, Social Media Integration

Background: The clients wished to launch a platform through which soccer clubs could raise money risk-free.

The website allows an enrolled soccer team to launch a campaign for 30 days selling apparel with their club name and logo.  Each product has a different price and is worth a differing number of points.   The overall goal of the campaign is to reach the points goal within 30 days.

If the goal is reached, after the campaign ends, the credit cards used to reserve products will be charged and the soccer team will raise money.  If the goal is not reached, the cards will not be charged, without detriment to the soccer team.

Each product can come in a number of sizes and a number of colors, with customized information for each campaign.

The points for each campaign are calculated automatically with each new purchase and a countdown timer lets team supporters know how much time is left.

If you have developed an application, the Facebook page will become unavailable on March 1, 2012.  You do have the option to create a page for your application and import the likes to it, but that is not what we are concerning ourselves with here.  You can read more at: http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/611/.

This means, that if you developed a Facebook tab according to the guidelines in our previous post, you are going to find that you will no longer have a Facebook page, from which to add that tab to the page you want.  In other words, once you develop the app, you can no longer visit the page and click the link “Add Application to My Page.”

This leaves you with two ways to add the tab.

1. You can create an additional page on your server and set it as the Canvas URL in the advanced options of your facebook tab application.  This will direct users who visit your new application permalink to a page you’ve hosted, where you can add the FB html provided to create a dialog box which will allow visitors to add the tab to their page.

2. The easy way (if you have created the tab for a specific page), is to direct the user with administration privileges for that page to a link of the following nature.

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOU_APP_ID&display=popup&next=http://www.facebook.com

Just replace the App ID.  You’ll see a dialog box similar to the following:

Select the page you wish to add it to, click next, and then head to your page.  You can configure the tab like you normally would.

While this may be easier for developers in the future, it is drastically different from the add tab methods of just a few days ago, so it’s best to get an understanding prior to application pages being phased out early next year.

We did some experimenting with some free Facebook advertising credit.  If you are paying for hosting, and thinking about running Facebook ads, check to see if you host may offer you a redeemable Facebook credit.

First things first, there are two methods of paying for ads.

CPM – Using this method, you will pay a certain amount, often between 5 and 20 cents, per 1,000 impressions of your Facebook ad.  The upside is that if you right a good ad, you don’t have to pay the high cost per click.  Say the PPC method (explained below) gives you an average cost of $1.00 per click and the CPM method gives you a cost of $0.20, you’d only need your add to be clicked once for every 5,000 impressions to break even.  The major downside is that if you are not getting click throughs, then you are likely to rack up a significant amount of spending very quickly (remember that the same ad may be shown to the same disinterested Facebook user many, many times).

PPC - Using this method, you will pay per click.  This can cost a bit for very few clicks, but if you are beginning to copywrite Facbeook ads, you may get more market penetration for your dollar.  That is to say, you may get thousands of impressions between clicks.  Of course, unless your brand is recognizable or noteworthy, those impressions may be meaningless.

Your overall goal should be getting the most return for your dollar depending on the type of campaign you are running.  We’ll look at two different metrics you might use to gauge success:

1. Market Penetration (Impressions Valued Higher Than Clicks)

Once you’ve narrowed down the profiles you wish to hit (the more you are targeting, the less it costs in general), you may only want to get your name into the consciousness of internet users.  In this instance, impressions may be of the utmost importance as compared to clicks.

While it may seem that the best resort is to run CPM ads, this can hurt you unless your ad is written so that it is likely to be clicked.  If your ad gets one click in 5000 for the method above, CPM may be the way to go, but if it gets less than that, go with CPM.  You’ll pay per click and you’ll probably get far more impressions for each dollar spend.

2. Click Throughs (Clicks Valued Higher Than Impressions)

Alright, this is where great copywriters and brands will make their difference.

When you are beginning writing your ads, it is advisable to run both CPM and PPC versions of the same ad under separate campaigns.  This will help you to analyze your data and choose which version to continue with.

You see, as with everything, you’ll want to get the most clicks per dollar spent.  Check your CPC for each method for the same ad, or run a metric like this:

Cost of Campaign (CPM) / # of Clicks = CPC (CPM)

Cost of Campaign (PPC) / # of Clicks = CPC (PPC)

Continue displaying whichever has the lowest CPC.

Here are a few things we noticed that helped keep the CPC down when we were running our last campaign:

• Keep the ad simple. The fewer words a user has to read, the better.
• Command lines similar to “Like this if…” seem to work quite well.  By shortening our ad copy to a single sentence in that vein, we were able to drop our PPC from around $1.00 for the CPC method, to around $0.40 for the same ad using the CPM method.
• Try to target as large a market as would be interested in your product.  The larger the market, the lower the bid price (since the greater odds that someone else is not bidding on some users in that market).
• Keep changing your ads.  It doesn’t take long for an add to become stale, especially if it keeps appearing to the same user.  Change it up.
• Try variations of the same copy.  You’d be surprised how much a simple word substitution can increase your click-through ratio.

Let’s run with an example. My wife enjoys blogging about crafting and cooking on her blog. However, she does not like me to mess around with any of her set-up despite my increasing insistence, so I’ve tried to show her how easily I could insert a custom post type into her dashboard. (For the record, I’m still not allowed to touch the blog, but this does work pretty easily).

This is what you will see if all goes well.

Alright, I want to create the custom post-type of Recipes in four quick steps.

1. Begin the Functions.php Function

I want to create a function to be inserted into functions.php with an array for the various labels I am going to see in the dashboard:


function jd_recipes() {
$reclabels = array(
'name' => 'Recipes',
'singular_name' => 'Recipe',
'add_new' => 'Add New Recipe',
'add_new_item' => 'Add New Recipe',
'edit_item' => 'Edit Recipe',
'new_item' => 'Add New Recipe',
'view_item' => 'View Recipe',
'search_items' => 'Search Recipes',
'not_found' => 'No Recipes Found',
'not_found_in_trash' => 'No Recipes Found in Trash'
);
}


The labels are pretty self explanatory. You don’t need them all, but why not hang with those of us on the safe side?

2. Adding More to The Function

Now, I want to add an additional array to that function I created in step 1. This array will give the custom post-type its abilities.


function jd_recipes() {
$reclabels = array(
'name' =&gt 'Recipes',
'singular_name' =&gt 'Recipe',
'add_new' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'add_new_item' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'edit_item' =&gt 'Edit Recipe',
'new_item' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'view_item' =&gt 'View Recipe',
'search_items' =&gt 'Search Recipes',
'not_found' =&gt 'No Recipes Found',
'not_found_in_trash' =&gt 'No Recipes Found in Trash'
);
$recargs = array(
'labels' =&gt $reclabels,
'public' =&gt true,
'supports' =&gt array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'custom-fields', 'comments' ),
'capability_type' =&gt 'post',
'rewrite' =&gt array('slug' =&gt 'recipe'),
'has_archive' =&gt true
);
}


That $recargs array offers the real meat. Here’s how:

labels – We just include our first array. All done. Everything is labeled nicely.
public – In our case, we want these posts to be viewable by everyone.
supports – The fields our custom post-type will support. We’ve basically included everything that a regular post will have (I very much enjoy custom fields). We want each post to have a title, be editable, have an author, comments, and I enabled thumbnail support for the theme with that nifty add_theme_support('post-thumbnails') function earlier in the functions.php file.
capability_type – Make it post-capable.
rewrite – Here I rewrite the slug, so that each recipe will have ‘/recipe/’ in the URI.
has_archive – Set to true, so that we can view all of her recipes on a single page.

You can see more supports in the WordPress Codex (a link at the end of the post).

3. Use the Register_Post_Type Function

Now, include in our recipes function a call to the almighty register_post_type() function.


function jd_recipes() {
$reclabels = array(
'name' =&gt 'Recipes',
'singular_name' =&gt 'Recipe',
'add_new' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'add_new_item' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'edit_item' =&gt 'Edit Recipe',
'new_item' =&gt 'Add New Recipe',
'view_item' =&gt 'View Recipe',
'search_items' =&gt 'Search Recipes',
'not_found' =&gt 'No Recipes Found',
'not_found_in_trash' =&gt 'No Recipes Found in Trash'
);
$recargs = array(
'labels' =&gt $reclabels,
'public' =&gt true,
'supports' =&gt array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'custom-fields', 'comments' ),
'capability_type' =&gt 'post',
'rewrite' =&gt array('slug' =&gt 'recipe'),
'has_archive' =&gt true
);
register_post_type('recipe', $recargs);
}


Almost done…

4. Add The Action

Now that you have the function written, add it upon initialization using another convenient WordPress function.


function jd_recipes() {
//All That Code We Just Wrote
}
add_action( 'init', 'jd_recipes' );


And you are done. Change it up and you can make post types for crafts, hobbies, products, anything really.

Extras

If you want each post-type to have their own display within your theme. Just theme out the single and archive files and save them in the proper format. For our recipe post-type, we’d save two files:


single-recipe.php
archive-recipe.php


You can also call only posts of a specific post type by including 'post_type' => 'recipe' or similar in your query args.

It wasn’t too bad was it?

For More Information:
WordPress Codex – Register_Post_Type

I’ll give you the best SEO strategy out there, in just a few words, and follow it up with a few tips about best practices and how to avoid seo scams that might be trying to cash in on your web venture.

Okay. So here it is. The best…number one…nearly foolproof way to build your brand: Be Patient.

No you say? That can’t be it.  There has to be some secret way to trick the search engines into placing my blog about kittens on the top of the search results for cats despite 90% of existing websites pertaining to cats, including cats.com!  Alas, there is no permanent solution for this, because it would defeat the goals of search engines: to provide the most relevant content to a users request.

This is largely determined by your internet reputation, determined by the quality of the links from other sites to yours, which is in turn

A search for cats on Google renders over 530,000,000 results. Has your blog earned the title as the most definitive resource?

developed by the quality of the content you provide and the length of time your site has been able to permeate the collective internet consciousness.  You might be tempted to pay for a service that will provide a few thousand links to your site, but there is no guarantee that those links will themselves come from reputable sites (pretty much the opposite really), and no guarantee that they will come from sites whose content matches closely with your own.

Now hopefully, we haven’t dashed your hopes of an online empire too badly, but if you are expecting anything on the internet to be quick and easy, aside from finding the latest celebrity news, you are mistaken.  That all being said, here are 6 tips to help you increase your search engine traffic, while remaining patient.

If you aren’t sure how to do these things yourself, then at least you’ll know what you should be looking for when trying to hire help.  Naturally, iDesign Solutions will be willing to provide you with assistance in accomplishing any of these things.  If you really want to do it yourself, but need some clarification, leave a comment or contact us and I will personally be more than willing to offer pointers.

1. Make sure your HTML Mark-Up is Valid

Try to make sure your page contains heading tags <h1><h2><h3>, and has a logical flow.  Make sure your images have alt tags included.  Try to include image width and height (if consistent), to save on page load times.  Pretend that you are a machine looking at your source code.  Does it make sense? A search engine is a machine looking at your source code.

You may also wish to include <meta> tags for description and keywords.  While Google no longer considers these in their search algorithm, per their blog, they will effect how your page displays in search results (that text under the link will be the description), and smaller search engines may still use them.

Keep everything concise, so engines can download your content faster, and you will be fine.

2. Right Content for People…Because You Want People To Read It

You might be tempted to use the information gleaned from the 2006 article you just read about keyword density to jam your keyword phrase, “world’s greatest grandmother,” into your page as many times as possible.  This is probably not going to work out very well for you.

A) The greatest engineers in silicon valley are currently working feverishly to find ways to identify that sort of keyword stuffing, and impact the ranking for the negative.  The more it sounds like it was written by a computer program, the more likely it is to fall to the wayside.

B) The whole point of getting your page to show up in a search engine ranking is for people to read those things you’ve been writing.  If you are able to rig your page to appear high in search results and people click the link, but the voice seems ridiculous, they’re probably going to leave immediately and all will be for not.

3. Keep Your Content Relevant

This article is about SEO.  You have found it on a site dedicated to the development and design of web sites.  We might say great web design and development, in fact.  However, you will not find any recipes for chocolate chip cookies at iDesign Solutions.  You will find those on a cooking site.  Wouldn’t you think it was pretty strange to find a recipe in a web development blog?  That’s how everybody else feels too.

4. Continuously Update and Generate New Content

Lehman Brothers was worth billions of dollars. In 2008, it went bankrupt.

The first part relates to your mainstay pages.  Make sure your content remains relevant to the current world situation, by removing outdated information and adding in new and pertinent information.  If your site totes your financial wisdom, make sure you remove your buy recommendations for Lehman Brothers from your advice page and references to the eternal strength of the Euro. (If the EU is #1 when you are reading this, then we have ignored our own advice and have not updated since Dec 2, 2011).

The second part relates to your blog.  Do you have one? If not, you should add one.  If you do, make sure you update it continuously.  This serves to show that you know a great deal about the subjects that concern you, or at the very least, are incredibly opinionated about the subjects that concern you.  They also help you cast the net wide, grabbing potential customers or readers who might be looking for slightly different subjects that still pertain to you.  The wider you cast your net, while maintaining the relevancy of Tip 3, the more likely you are to have people repeat the things you say, thereby increasing your internet reputation.

5. Beware the Scammers and Their Promises

You were likely told as a child that you can’t believe everything you hear, or read, or see.  This innocence-shattering revelation holds true even when you venture onto the internet.  I get phone calls every month from companies offering to develop a website to help enhance my product.  I can guarantee they have not bothered to look at this site to see the service I am selling.

If you receive a cold call offering to sell you a product, force the telemarketer to explain what they are offering in words that make sense to you.  They will commonly try to use technical terminology that is confusing or meaningless.  Once you have their company’s name and write down the information the give you, you can either tell them no or offer to look into it further and possibly purchase their services (some out there may be legitimate).

Now, the first thing you’ll want to look at is what they told you.  Did they make you a guarantee? If so, they probably cannot offer you any real help.  Guarantees are meaningless.  As we said, the goal of the search engine is to provide the most relevant content possible.  There may always be someone out there who is more relevant than you.  A guarantee of placement is very bad in the SEO business.

Next, I like to run a Google search for “company name” +”scam”.  If many of the top ten results that come up are declarations on other websites that the company is a scam, than I can be assured they probably are.  Not to say that bad reviews always mean bad business, but if a company is touting their SEO capabilities and cannot place pro-company articles higher than company-scam articles, they probably aren’t as skilled as they’d have you believe.

6. Get Involved, Interact, Be A Social Butterfly

If you don’t have social media accounts yet, get on there.  If you don’t read other blogs, check them out.  Not only might you learn something, but by interacting with others through comments, tweets, or facebook posts, you might get other people to read the things you’ve written, or to purchase the products you recommend.

Better yet, as you grow and continue to involve yourself with the community of your choice (there are infinitely many communities it seems on the web), you’ll start building your brand with the people to whom it matters most – those people who are interested in your product or message.  They might repeat it to others.  At the very least, you’ll help to get yourself out there by giving people a reason to look at your work instead of someone else’s.

In summary, you need to be patient. You’ve heard about the wonders of the internet, and for the most part, those wonders are true.  But you can’t expect to be the world’s greatest grandma without spending some time proving it first.