This plugin creates a user-friendly slide management interface in the WordPress backend as well as provides template tags that can be used in any theme to load the slides’ information into a jQuery slider of your choice.

This plugin is ideal for theme developers who need to provide their clients an easy-to-use interface for managing slider content.

IMPORTANT: This plugin is not intended to be plug and play and is intended for theme developers with at least some basic WordPress and JavaScript/jQuery experience.

Installing the plugin

1. Download the plugin via your WordPress admin interface or from the WordPress.org plugin directory here
2. Upload “slider_admin.php” to the “/wp-content/plugins/” directory
3. Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress
4. Configure the plugin in the “Settings” menu.
5. Setup your slider by editting the page specified in in the plugin settings.
6. Implement the template tags. See example below.

Adding a slider to your theme

<?php

$the_slides = fourty_slider_get_slides(); //returns an array of arrays filled with each slide's info.

$slide_n=0;

//loop through each slide and echo it's info
foreach($the_slides as $cur_slide){

	//get the slide's image
	echo '<img src="' . $cur_slide['image'] . '" />';

	//get the slide's title
	echo $cur_slide['title'];

	//get the slide's caption
	echo $cur_slide['caption'];

	//get the slide's link
	echo $cur_slide['link'];

	//this echoes the indicators onto each slide with a class for the current slide's indicator
	for($n=0; $n<count($the_slides); $n++){

		if($n==$slide_n){
			echo '<div class="indicator-on"></div>';
		} else {
			echo '<div class="indicator-off"></div>';
		}

	}

	$slide_n++;

}
?>

Where did Lobot come from?

We are admitted Star Wars fans. Lobot appeared in Episode V — Check him out.

“Lobot’s not the chatty type, but he sure is loyal. And great with computers!” ―Lando Calrissian

What is it?

WordPress was born as a blogging platform where people could easily create and publish their own blog. Through the help of an open-source community it has evolved and expanded to a full-fledged content management system (CMS). WordPress.com still exists as an easy-to-use platform for DIYers wanting to set up and publish their own blog. There is also the open-source branch of WordPress (WordPress.org) where you can install and run the WordPress platform on your own server — that’s the sandbox we play in.

Why We’re WordPress Junkies

There are four primary reasons why we use WordPress as our CMS platform.

1. Flexibility
2. Extensibility
3. Reliability
4. Usability

Flexibility

Before the acronym CMS was derived, websites were either hand-coded page-by-page or web teams built their own home-grown database systems to help manage content and other aspects of a site. With WordPress, all the heavy-lifting is baked in to the platform through features and functions that can easily be incorporated into a new site with just a little bit of PHP experience. We can not only build sites faster, they are more functional and usable by our clients and their customers. This allows us to focus more of a client’s budget on design and user experience than programming and debugging.

Extensibility

<strong>ex-ten-si-ble</strong> <em>[ik-sten-suh-buhl]</em> (adjective)
Capable of being extended.

The WordPress framework is not only lightweight and fast, but is built in a way that allows us, and the giant WordPress community, to tie directly into its functionality through the use of plugins, pre-built themes, and anything else we can think up. So things that were complicated or time-consuming to build in the past such as integrating RSS feeds, managing forms, or dynamically creating sitemaps for search engines can all be built once and used across any WordPress site. In this regard, WordPress is far ahead of similar platform options.

Reliability

When the coolness of a new website wears off the not-so-sexy considerations become real… How secure is my site? Will this over-sized picture of my cat dressed as Darth Vader crash the site? A good portion of this burden resides with the server and host you are using (a future post), but code does matter. WordPress frequently updates their platform with new versions aimed at new features, bug squashing, and security patches. And it’s as simple as clicking “Auto-Update”. Of course, we still do nightly backups, but its easier to sleep at night knowing there are millions of WordPress sites out there ferreting out any potential issues.

Usability

Finally, all that previous stuff is cool, but if at the end of the day if a CMS is difficult to use by our clients then we are taking a step backwards. The back-office control panel of WordPress is super-simple, intuitive and quite elegant. Even in this space, we can make customizations that further enhance and simplify the experience for clients based on their unique needs. We can show a client how to maintain their own site in an hour or less, empowering them to focus on content and less on learning HTML or a maze of menus any mysterious terms.

By default your fan page address will look something like this one for our friends at Signature Home Comfort:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Signature-Home-Comfort-Plumbing-Heating-and-Air-Conditioning/321453010069

Nice, huh? No worries, though… just like for your own personal FB profile, you can create a short name for your page. The only requirement is that you have at least 25 fans.

To create a Facebook Fan Page Short URL

1. Go to http://facebook.com/username
2. Select the page you are wanting to apply the short name
3. Enter the name and click Check Availability

If all goes well, that should be it. Now your Facebook link will look nice in your emails and business cards.

Tomorrow, October 16, is National Boss’s Day. We thought we’d make a little token that you can print, email or fax your boss to thank him. Or just staple it to his TPS Report for making you work late on a Friday.

Enjoy!

Download

We finally ended up choosing Pizza Gallery & Grill to receive this kick-arse free web package. We had the absolute hardest time picking the right one. It took a few rounds of evaluation and consideration. Pizza Gallery & Grill’s site was ready for some sprucing up, but what pushed them across the finish line was how obvious it was that their web presence mattered to them. A big congratulations to Pizza Gallery & Grill.

Stay tuned to the blog as we progress through their project. We are using this as an opportunity to share our process and thinking that goes into building a new website for a client.

We’re going to devote our next several blog posts to this subject and guide you through our approach and philosophy here. The extra steps we take with our projects and why you really get what you pay for in our industry.

Step 1: Goals and Objectives

Before every other step in the project we need to clearly understand our client’s goals and objectives. We break this into three distinct areas:

1. What are the site’s goals?
2. What do your visitors want?
3. What does your staff want?

Site Goals

What do you want your site to do? What does success look like? Obvious questions, right? You would think so, but there seem to be an endless supply of sites that have no clear purpose. The “We just want a web presence” website is not good enough anymore. Just ask your customers.
Take the time to define some clear and measurable goals for the site. Be specific if you can. All other decisions after this point should contribute to these goals and objectives.

What do your visitors want?

OK, so you have set some goals for your site. Now you need to consider who your visitors are and what they will want from your site while maintaining alignment with your overall goals. If you can’t meet their needs then their visit will be short and you won’t see any results.

It seems simple, but it is rare that a site is built from the perspective of the visitors. More often a website is built based on what a business wants the public to see of them and their services, rather than thinking of how the site might better aid their customers or prospects.

When capturing the detailed needs of your client’s customer, we sometimes create “personas” of their typical customers. What are they like, what do they do with their spare time and their spare money.

So, what do your customers want? What Google search terms will they use to find a site like yours? What content, services, offers, or calls to action can you use to appeal to these wants? And don’t just think sales here. It’s service, too.

It’s all about creating satisfied customers that will come back and recommend you to their friends. If you give people what they want, the way they want it and follow through with a fast finish when it comes time to pay up, you are much more likely to turn them into satisfied customers.

What does your staff want?

This is something that is overlooked in even medium to large-sized organizations. Clients have numerous processes that could be made easier or even automated by the smart use of a website or an online app. For example, they may have staff that spends time handling support calls from customers – this could be addressed with a support section or knowledgebase on the site.

The focus would be on freeing up staff’s time, allowing them to focus on other more vital tasks. All you have to do is take the time to consider employees in the design — maybe even bring them into the project planning process.

No matter how strategically sound a marketing campaign is, it is only effective if it reaches the right audience. That’s why companies need a smart advertising media buyer – to help you implement a strategic media planning and media buying campaign.

Our Media Buying service begins with detailed research – learning everything we can about your company, your product or service, and your target market. After careful analysis, we develop a media plan that includes demographic research, recommendations on media placement, an estimated budget and expected results.

We’re able to negotiate excellent rates for you and develop a myriad of strategies to put your message in front of the right audience at the right time. This kind of commitment maximizes your brand’s exposure and increases your return on investment.

This is a free service that will save you plenty of headaches and help make your campaigns work.

Contact us if you would like us to talk about this new service.

What is Google Trends?

Google Trends allows you to compare the world’s interest in any given topic. You enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over a period of time. It also shows how frequently your topics have shown up in different Google News stories as well as in which geographic regions people have searched for them most. Sweet, eh?

Are you bored or trying to come up with an idea for your daily blog topic? The top 10 search trends show up on the main page, but click on “More Hot Trends” to see a larger snapshot of what’s on the public’s mind at any given moment by listing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time.

If you dig deeper there are advanced features like Trends for Websites and Insights for Search, which breaks down search data even more specifically.

This is an invaluable tool when considering search and online advertising options.