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Theme designers – what you need to know about WordPressMU

Comments Off 25 November 2009

First off, I know there has been some confusion over themes for WPMU, but I can say that 99% of the themes out there work in WPMU. They often require some edits for personal preferences, but what theme doesn’t? Mostly what I’m going to talk is how themes are used in a WPMU environment. In the case of someone running a WordPressMU install, they want to just be able to drop in some themes and go. If there are a lot of edits needed, chances are the admin will drop it and pick another theme. Having a theme on a WPMU install means exposure – LOTS of exposure.

There are two uses for themes in a WPMU environment. One is on the main blog, or home page. The other use is for the users. That is, members who sign up for a blog.

WordPressMU themes for users

In a WPMU install, the most important thing to remember is that users can’t edit themes. See how themes are used on WordPress.com? That’s what I’m talking about. So if your theme has a hard-coded area in the sidebar that says something like:

Author info:
Just edit sidebar.php and put in a little information about yourself.

WPMU site admins are going to have to take that out. Check your theme over for any hardcoded areas that need changing, or any areas you expect the theme user to edit manually.

Themes are also shared between users. This is another reason you don’t want hardcoded areas. If I manually edit the theme for one user, all other users with access to that theme see the same files. Which leads me to my next helpful tip.

Widgetize that theme already!

Yeah, yeah, I know… on my own personal blogs, and this one, I like to edit the sidebars myself and tweak things as need. Sometimes it’s plain easier to edit the files than it is to mess with clicking and dragging widgets. But on a WPMU setup, that’s one of the few ways users have to customize their look.

If there’s a header graphic, consider adding the custom header API to your functions file so users can personalize the theme further.

And finally, if you can and if the theme calls for it, consider an options page for extra frills. It’s just a nice touch and users will be able to add or change all kinds of goodies in the backend.

I also feel that as the single-user version of WordPress reaches a larger and more non-technical user base, easier theme management from the backend will probably turn out to be the eventual norm.

WordPressMU themes for the home page

Ahhh, here’s the good stuff. First off, in my experience, every WPMU Site Admin wants something different on their home page. I’m not suggesting theme designers make a WPMU home version with WPMU-specific code in it. I’m just doing an overview so designers understand what Site Admins generally are looking for.

In MU, the main blog is also the landing page of the entire site. Many admins get a theme with an included home.php file or whip up their own. In this way, the main blog is sort of shuffled off to the background, while the home.php page can showcase some sitewide features.

There are many wpmu-specific plugins and code out there to pull sitewide data onto the home page, and like I said above, everyone usually wants something slightly different. In terms of design, I find that grid or magazine layouts lend themselves well to being adapted to a home theme.

And one more tip.

The last thing I’ll mention is theme hooks. Make sure your theme has to proper and standard hooks in it, namely wp_head and wp_footer. On a WPMU site, these are widely used in plugins to insert code automatically in themes for (in some cases) thousands of users.

So there’s a general overview. I hope this gives you a little bit of insight into how themes are used in a WordPressMU-driven site. If I left anything out, you have a tip of your own, or even a question, feel free to leave a comment.

MAKE MONEY ONLINE, Start your own Business

Finding your footing on the Digital Platform

Comments Off 28 October 2009

Techniques for Making a Successful Job Post on Elance

To initiate a successful engagement with an Elance service provider relies heavily on the initial job posting. Writing a clear job description, categorizing the posting correctly and maintaining reasonable expectations will profoundly impact your satisfaction and experience as a job poster or employer. You need to have reasonable expectations. Asking for a clone of a complex site like eBay or Amazon for a few hundred dollars is definitely not a reasonable expectation. If your budget range is too low for the amount of work being requested, professional and experienced providers will not take your posting seriously, and you will receive a number of lower quality proposals. Choosing from those proposals may result in a project that will not meet your expectations.

If you have in mind a clear idea of what you want, and describe that idea in as much detail as possible, your results will stand a much better chance of satisfaction with no frustration. Having a project defined as, “I need a website to sell XYZ product” does not give the service provider enough information to really help building a proposal to deliver what you want. You have a better chance at winning in roulette than leaving so many details up to chance in a providers mind. Do the groundwork and put in some effort before making your post. Repeating an idea or requirement in a design specification or request will not hurt the effort, especially if the requirement is something critical or important to the project. Repetition is re-enforcement.

Next you will need to choose the correct categories and skill set when making your post. Choosing the right category is important since this determines what kind of providers will respond to your job posting. Listing the top skills your provider should have to complete the project will help a provider in determining whether or not they should respond to your post.

Expect a multitude of responses fairly quickly, often times within hours and certainly within a day. You will see a variety of prices, and of course it’s not always the best route to go with the lowest cost provider. Review the ratings on each provider and take a look at their portfolio. One technique that many experienced job posters utilize is to re-word the job description and send it back out to your top choices as providers. This accomplishes two things, first it will verify that the provider clearly understands the project and secondly you can gauge their responsiveness to your query.

Once you select a provider and begin the engagement, be sure to keep the flow of communication active and frequent. Lack of communication is one of the top reasons of dissatisfaction and frustration with job engagements from both the providers and employers. Get status updates and provide feedback quickly, keeping the communication flowing and in the end you will get a great result!

MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Earning Extra in the Midst of the Global Economy Crisis

Comments Off 28 October 2009

Can You Put Elance to Work For You?

Elance is the world’s largest marketplace for finding high quality professionals, creative experts and technology specialists. If you need specialized talent to complete a project for your business, Elance is the premier spot to hire, manage and pay for work online. Consider all of the scenarios and types of businesses that are utilizing Elance right now. There are retail store owners who need new advertising created, content and articles written for a new catalog or brochure, or graphics created for a new product line. Impress your customers with high quality presentations and create the best possible retail experience for your customers, while sticking to your core competency. Consultants who have long term engagements with existing clients are often asked to handle additional work that falls outside of their expertise. Why send this work elsewhere? Jump on Elance and find a talented professional that you can utilize to sub-contract the portion of work that fits within someone else&rsquos wheelhouse, and impress your client further with your ability to jump in and help their business.

Companies that are trying to stay lean and trim during the current challenging economic situation are still faced with large projects or looming deadlines. Talented administrative professionals are available on Elance to fill in and complete time consuming but temporary tasks like data entry, accounting, document preparation, presentation preparation, travel planning and more.

How does your company website look? Do you have a web designer and programmer on staff or a design firm on retainer? Many small and medium sized businesses are not able to afford such an expense, even though a professional web presence is as necessary as having someone responding to customers. Browse through Elance to find a professional to spruce up your site, or add functionality and enhancements to the catalog or checkout process.

Are you working at home or building your own online drop shipping or affiliate business? Focus on your core business while hiring an Elance professional to build your website, or help with your SEO efforts. A professional can deliver high quality results which will help you quickly build your business and profit in half the time. The end result being more money into your account faster!

Set-up an account today and see the wide range of jobs that other businesses are getting done on Elance. Read the great reviews and testimonials to see for yourself the overall positive experience businesses are receiving from the Elance talent pool.

MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Elance – The New Way to Work from Home

Comments Off 28 October 2009

Do you have a great idea to start a website or online business?

Do you have a great idea to start a website or online business, but lack the knowledge, experience or confidence in your technical skills? Or perhaps you’ve already created a simple blog or website, but you know it just doesn’t look professional enough. There are effective solutions to these problems through outsourcing. The internet has opened up the global pool for technical talent that you can tap in to through the online work marketplace, Elance.com.

Elance has a huge database of skilled professionals to match up with your requirements for the work you need to get done. You can post a description of the project and allow for open bidding from talented professionals, or you can invite selected professionals to submit a proposal.

Elance is your one-stop complete solution for hiring experts, managing the work and paying for the results upon completion. Once a talented professional is found and business terms are agreed upon, milestones can be set within Elance to measure progress. Through Elance you’re able to communicate and collaborate with the contractor and review status reports to track the project through completion.

Milestones or whole projects can be pre-funded using the escrow service built into the system. This gives piece of mind to both the provider and the employer that payment is available and will be made once the milestone or job is completed to satisfaction. Once the job is completed, you have the ability to leave a feedback rating on six areas of the service providers’ performance.

If you need to get work done, for example building or improving a website, shopping cart integration, marketing copy written, search engine optimization, database programming, or a host of other tasks, then there really is no easier, safer and more complete solution than posting the job on Elance and letting an experienced professional take the stress and work out of your hands.