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Building a Link Directory with WordPress

priyanshu | Nov 14,2011 |   No Comments

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS. Current Estimates suggest that WordPress powers almost 22% of the active websites on the internet. This is an incredible market share specially when you consider the market size.

With WordPress 3.0the community has taken a forward step and is now evolving into a content management System. New and powerful features like Custom Post Type and Custom Taxonomy extend WordPress into a full blown CMS.

Linkpress harnesses the power of custom post types  to create an out-of-the-box link directory solutions for WordPress.  With Linkpress we are trying to make the process of creating a link directory as simple as installing a WordPress theme.  In the future posts we will talk about the feature set which we have included in.

 

 

 

Selecting Multiple Lists in Mailchimp Plugin

priyanshu | Sep 23,2011 |   one comments |

 

The Official Mailchimp plugin for WordPress does not support selection of multiple lists.  Mailchimp discourages the selection of multiple lists and the UI forces you to select one list.

Mailchimp advocates  the use of segmenting while running a campaign.

Say for example you run a Cricket related blog and have multiple lists setup:

  • Cricket News
  • Test Match News
  • One Day News
  • Sachin Tendulkar!

You want a signup form which subscribes users to all the lists. It is technically feasible but it creates a problem.

The biggest problem with this approach is that a user will receive multiple confirmation mails. Mailchimp sends one subscription confirmation mail per list and subscribing to multiple lists will send multiple confirmation mail which can confuse user and potentially turn them away.   So in our case user will get 4 confirmation mails!!! It is sure to scare the user away.

So the best way in this case it to create groups within a list and let users select their interest groups. So we will have a Cricket List with groups like:

  • Cricket News
  • Test Match News
  • One Day News
  • Sachin Tendulkar!

And in this case user will only get one confirmation mail as it is only a single List with multiple groups.

WordPress vs Drupal: The never Ending Debate

priyanshu | Aug 11,2011 |   2 comments

 

Should I choose WordPress or Drupal for my Project ? This is a question which has puzzled the humanity for last 7 years and we still haven’t got the right answer.   Like all great questions this one has no right answer.  It really depends upon the type of Project.

 

WordPress is best suited for blogs, corporate websites, brochureware websites and other simple websites. WordPress is a Blogging Software after all and it was designed to be a blogging software first and a platform Second. WordPress can be extended via plugins but it is still best suited for simpler use cases.

Drupal on the other hand is designed to be a framework.  Drupal can be used to make forum websites, e-commerce portals, corporate intranets,  travel booking engines, social networks etc. Drupal at core is a framework and can be used to develop anything under the Sun.

So,  if I have a simple website to make I will go ahead with WordPress. However If the project has advanced functionality I will go ahead with Drupal.

 

 

How to Create a Job site with WordPress

priyanshu | Jul 26,2011 |   one comments

WordPress is an amazingly flexible CMS. It made humble beginnings as a blog engine but has since grown in a complete Content Management System.

WordPress can be used to create social networking website, A Magazine Like Website, An Article Directory and  even a Job site.

Not many Jobsites are powered with WordPress but still it can be used to create a fairly advanced Job Site.

Job Board Plugin

WordPress Job Manager is an open source plugin for creating advanced job sites with WordPress. It has various features like:

  • Job Listing
    • Categories to create multiple job boards
    • Jobs can be filed under multiple categories
    • Icons can be assigned to jobs, to make them stand out in the listing
    • Customisable fields, so you can display information about your jobs specific to your situation
    • Powerful templating system, allowing you to control the look and feel of your jobs and job boards
    • Widgets to fit into your WordPress theme
  • Job Management
    • Jobs can be defined to display between certain dates, or indefinitely
    • Simple admin interface for editing, updating and creating jobs
    • Jobs can be easily archived or made public as needed
  • Applications
    • Applicants can apply through the website, using a form that you can customize and template, so you get the information you need
    • Advanced filtering on application forms, to ensure you only get applications that match your criteria: Documentation
    • Upon successful application, you can be emailed the details, so you’re always up to date with new applicants
  • Applicant Management
    • Simple interface for viewing all applicants
    • List can be filtered based on any criteria in your custom application form
    • Email individuals or groups of candidates, to keep them updated on new job opportunities in your organisation
    • Interview scheduling, linked directly to jobs and applications
    • Internal comments, for easy reference when you need to decide

 

 

It requires Wp version 2.9 and above.

 

 

WordPress Job Site Themes

 

Another option is to use a Job Site theme for WordPress. There are various job site themes which can be utilized for this purpose. Here is a list of Themes for powering your job site

 

 

 

How to Choose a Group Buying Script

priyanshu | Jul 25,2011 |   No Comments

The market is flooded with Groupon Clone script. Though most of them make tall claims but the reality is that many of them are quite ordinary.



Nothing is more annoying than discovering that the software you bought is full of bugs.  It results in waste of time and money.  Creating a successful internet business is hard enough and buying a buggy script will make things even harder.



Before you decide to shell out the money keep these 5 points in mind and more often than not you will end up making the right decision.

Here are certain points to consider before you decide to shell out the money:

1) Ease of Customization:

No matter how feature rich the software is, one has to customize it before launching.  The design needs to be changed, a new feature needs to be added, new payment gateway needs to be supported.

The script should be easy to understand and customize. That is why one should check who are the people behind the script.. are they experienced and professional?

2) Speed and Security: Groupon, living social, yipit are amazingly fast. Users will expect the same speed and stability while browsing your portal. It is criminal to keep the users waiting. Make sure that the script you buy is fast and zippy.

3) Underlying Technology It is always better to choose a script developed on a tried and tested platform. Talk to the developers and try to find out the underlying platform which powers their product.

4) Usability: A system is of no use if it is not intuitive. Is the Admin Panel easy to navigate? Is it easy to install ? Try to answer these questions before you make the purchase decision.

5) Support: How good is the support? Support is lifeline of any software product. Try to interact with lead developers , see if they are responsive. Bad support can increase the cost of customization and lead to failure.

One has to keep these 5 

points in mind and more often than not you will end up making the right purchase decision.

 

 

 

Stop WordPress Comment Spam: 5 simple tricks

priyanshu | Jul 23,2011 |   No Comments

1) Require User Registration:

If you require users to register and provide a valid email address then this will significantly reduce comments. However, a lot of people do not like to register in order to post comments so if your goal is to increase the number of user comments then you may want to allow anonymous commenting.  If you allow anonymous commenting then you must use a spam prevention module like Akismet.

2) Use Third Party Commenting Widget:

Using Facebook or Disqus widget can help reduce the number of spam comments. However one drawback with this approach is that you dont own the comments. If you disable the widgets, you lose all the comments

3) Use No Follow for Comments:

One of the primary reason for comment spam is link building. If you blog allow do-follow comments then you should be prepared to get targeted by spammy link building services. Spam commenst can negatively affect you search engine ranking.. so one should never use Do-Follow for comments.

4) Block IP Ranges:

Watch out for IP addresses from where the comment spam is originated. Simply block those IP’s. Before blocking an IP make sure that you are not blocking any genuine user.

5) Install Akismet

This is the simple one that everyone does. Akismet comes bundled with WordPress by default and does a good job of picking up spam – for the average blogger, install Akismet and your spam problems will be sorted.

How to make a logo in photoshop

priyanshu | Jun 22,2011 |   one comments

Step 1. Go to the file menu choose a new document.

Step 2. Select bagkground layer fill background color solid black #000000.

Step 3. Go to tools and select ‘custom shape tool (U)’

Step 4. Go to set shape to create.

Step 5. Select home shape and drag it.


Step 6. Drag the home shape.

Step 7. Go to the window  select  style and use it.

Step 8. Now using the text tool type the word “Realstate” on the screen using white as the color. The font that I am using is ‘Bauhaus-Thin Wide’ and the size is 48pt.

Step 9. Now open the Layer Style window by right clicking the layer and selecting Blending Options.

Step 10. Now choose an Outer Glow with the following settings in layer style.

Step 11. And Now choose the Bevel and Emboss settings.

Step 12. Then apply this gradient overlay.

Step 13. Choose here are the color settings for the gradient.

Step 14. Now apply the settings and your image should look like this.

Step 15. Now we need to add another layer. With the shape Custom Shape tool select the fire shape, pictured below. This is a default shape in Photoshop CS3. and Use white as your fore color and draw a large section of fire over top of your text.

Step 16. Now set the layer blend mode to Overlay and reduce the Opacity to 60%.

Step 17. Now you are finished. Your final logo image should look like this.

Creating a Coming Soon Page with WordPress- In under 10 mins

ankit | Jun 20,2011 |   2 comments

 

Creating a Coming Soon Page in WordPress is super easy. All it take is a free theme and 10 mins. The end result would look like this

 

Is’nt it beautiful. It also has a countdown timer and a Newsletter Subscription Box. Setting it up is a breeze, just follow the below steps and you will have a functional site in 10 mins.

Install WordPress: Download and install WordPress on your server. It is a pretty straight forward task. If you still want some help with it then check out wordpress.org

Install Placeholder Theme : Once the WordPress is installed, go and download placeholder theme. It is developed by Woothemes and is free to use. A note on Woothemes.. They are an awesome company have some really great themes. Check them out.

Install the Theme Installation is straight forward. Once the installation is done make the following changes

– Insert your own text, It can be done by going to Theme Options->Introduction

– Insert the countdown time. By going to Theme Options->Countdown

– One can also change the background Image by going to Styling Options.

Save the changes and thats it. We now have a see a shiny new Coming Soon Page .. and all that for free .

Whts the difference b/n pages and posts

priyanshu | Jun 19,2011 |   No Comments

In general, Pages are very similar to Posts in that they both have Titles and Content and can use your site’s Presentation Templates to maintain a consistent look throughout your site. Pages, though, have several key distinctions that make them quite different from Posts.

  • pages are last time dependent that post
  • they can be organized into pages and subpages
  • each page can have different page templates

What Pages are Not:

  • Pages are not Posts. They do not cycle through your blog’s main page. (Note: You can include Posts in Pages by using the Inline Posts Plugin.)
  • Pages cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags.
  • Pages are not files. They are stored in your database just like Posts are.
  • Although you can put Template Tags and PHP code into a Page Template, you cannot put these into the content of a Page and expect them to run.

One can change the display of the front page

go to Setting >Readings and select a radio button A static Page opposite front page displays and than select the page you want to show as a Front page/ Home page. see the images below

Chage the wordpress front page display

Selecting "first page" as a static front page

Front page

"first page" will now becomes a front page

How to dispaly list of categories without links in WordPress

priyanshu | Jun 19,2011 |   No Comments

You can use a function get_categories for this

This function Returns an array of category objects matching the query parameters.

Arguments are pretty much the same as wp_list_categories and can be passed as either array or in query syntax.

in short you can use this snippet

<?php
foreach((get_categories()) as $category) {
echo “<li>”.$category->name .”</li>”;
}
?>

note # make sure that atleast one post is present in all of  the categories

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