Theme Name: Clip Cart WordPress Theme  (Click on image or here to view theme)

Theme Platform: WordPress

Theme Framework: Genesis

Compatible Ecommerce Plugin: Cart66

Theme Designer: StudioPress Themes

Now I could highlight the standard features that the Genesis Framework boasts from the fact that it is optimized for search engines, the fact that it offers great turn-key designs or that they have great designers creating themes but I would rather talk about the extras that they provide you when you use the Genesis Framework.  StudioPress developed a number of plugins to work with the Genesis Framework including Genesis Simple Edits, Genesis Connect, Genesis Simple Hooks and Genesis Simple Sidebars.  The key is that the developers at StudioPress want to keep it simple for people producing websites.

Genesis Simple Edits

This plugin requires Genesis 1.3.1 and higher

This plug-in helps you to edit three common areas of your StudioPress website running the Genesis  Framework including the post-info or “by-line” area, the post-meta and the footer area of the website.  Having this plugin allows you to make edits quickly without the need to touch the code and that is definitely a plus to using this plugin.

Genesis Simple Hooks

This plugin requires Genesis 1.2.1 and higher

The Genesis Framework uses the concept introduced by WordPress to add simple HTML, PHP and shortcode hooks into your website that won’t be affected when you update your website.  A “Hook” basically hooks into the existing functionality of WordPress.

Genesis Simple Sidebars

This plugin requires Genesis 1.2.1 and higher

This plugin for the Genesis Framework allows you to create additional sidebars that are placed into primary and secondary locations on your WordPress Theme quickly and without needing to touch code.

Genesis Framework Development Resources

StudioPress gives you proven tutorials to do your own development using the Genesis Framework from developing custom widgets and admin management to understanding WordPress Hooks in the Genesis Framework.  This is a huge benefit to working with the Genesis Framework and the documentation including tutorials is up-to-date and readily available to access and use.  Most theme developers out there simply cannot compete with this which really sets StudioPress and more importantly the Genesis Framework making it highly adaptable to your individual needs.

There are also a number of reference guides created by StudioPress including filters, hooks and shortcodes.  The benefit here is that there is a ton of pre-built functionality available to those web developers and people out there that are comfortable developing for WordPress that choose to work with this Framework.

Hook Reference Guide

Hooks are a valuable tool in WordPress development and Genesis Framework has leveraged this core functionality to work in a number of ways.  Here are a few hooks developed by StudioPress for the Genesis Framework.

genesis_title
This hook executes between tags and outputs the doctitle. You can find all doctitle related code in/lib/structure/header.php.

genesis_site_title
By default, this hook outputs the site title, within the header area. It uses the user-specified SEO settings to build the site title markup appropriately.

genesis_site_description
By default, this hook outputs the site description, within the header area. It uses the user-specified SEO settings to build the site description markup appropriately.

genesis_before_content_sidebar_wrap
This hook executes immediately before the div block that wraps the content and the primary sidebar (outside the #content-sidebar-wrap div).

Filter Reference Guide

Some really great filters that StudioPress developed into the Genesis Framework include…

genesis_seo_title

Default value: $title, $inside, $wrap
Applied to the output of the genesis_seo_site_title function which depending on the SEO option set by the user will either wrap the title in <h1> or <p> tags.

genesis_footer_backtotop_text
Default value: [footer_backtotop]
Applied to the back to top text in the genesis_do_footer function.

the_search_query
Default value: get_search_query()
Applied to the search query in the genesis_search_form function.

Shortcode Reference Guide

The Genesis Framework comes with a bunch of shortcodes ready to use out of the box when you buy the Genesis Framework.  Here are a couple shortcodes of interest.

[post_date]

This function produces the date of post publication.
list of attributes for this short code:

• format – The format for the date. Defaults to the date format configured in your WordPress options.
• before – Text/markup to place before the post date.
• after – Text/markup to place after the post date.
• label – Text to place before the post date.

Example:

[post_date format="F j, Y" label="Dated: "]

Output: Dated: October 20, 2010

[footer_backtotop]

This function produces the “Return to Top” link
list of attributes for this short code:

• text – Default: “Return to top of page”
• href – assign to which div this link is anchored. Default: #wrap
• nofollow – assign nofollow to the rel attribute in the link to backtop. Default set to true.
• before – Text/markup to place before the “Return to Top” link.
• after – Text/markup to place after the “Return to Top” link.

Example:

[footer_backtotop text="Top" href="#content"]

Output: Top of post

So, as you can see there is a ton of functionality that you can use to develop any website using WordPress.  The Genesis Framework is “power-house” for those of you looking for a great.  Let’s look next at what you are going to need in order to run this on your website and start developing websites.

Requirements for using Genesis Framework

Current Version: 1.4.1

Required WordPress Version: 3.0

Compatible up to version: 3.0.1

Cost

The cost of the Genesis Framework is $59.95 which is really reasonable considering that it is very extendable, allows web developers to get a lot of functionality for their web projects quickly and amazing documentation and reference guides to get the job done!  Click here to check it out and buy it today!

Overall Comments and Thoughts

This Framework isn’t definitely for “newbies”, however if you are comfortable working with WordPress, PHP and other types of coding you won’t have a lot of issues trying to use this on your next website or in your next website project.

Also, because you can leverage this framework in your projects the return on investment is high and it will cut down your development time.  This is a bonus for web developers and web development companies that use this to their strategic advantages.

In the end, it’s a great framework to use on your next website project so check it out today.  You won’t be disappointed in the Genesis Framework.

Shopp eCommerce plug-in installed in WordPress

Shopp eCommerce plug-in settings in WordPress

Shopp eCommerce plug-in product administration area in WordPress

Things that I love about this Plug-in

Training videos answer your questions – Someone was definitely thinking when they decided to include short but informative videos that explain the interworking of their plug-in’s features and that is exactly what the developers of Shopp did!  This is definitely a plus because this feature alone shows you how the plug-in can be used quickly and easily.

Documentation, Documentation, Documentation – The key to selling a solution that people are going to use to develop something is to give them solid documentation on how to do what they want to do.  Shopp has an extensive library of documentation included when you buy the license (Yes, you need to buy the product to access the documentation but it’s worth it) and the documentation goes into heavy detail about topics like customization, setting up shipping and taxes, etc.

System Check Plug-in – Shopp needs a number of things to be successfully installed on your WordPress website including…

• Running an instance of WordPress 2.6 or higher
• Support for MySQL 5+ databases
• Support for PHP 5+
• PHP cURL Library with SSL support
• PHP GD 2 Library

The developers of Shopp decided to create a System Requirements Check plug-in that when activated will tell you if you are good to go ahead and use the Shopp plug-in on your WordPress website.  Pretty nifty and its free to anyone considering the use of the Shopp plug-in on their WordPress website!  Click here to check it out for yourself

Things that might turn you off this product

The only complaint is that the plug-in doesn’t have any free versions or basic versions of the plug-in available.  A lot of other premium WordPress plug-ins that I’ve reviewed in the past usually has a free basic version to stir interest and give you the basic features so I was kind of surprised in Shopp’s chosen method of delivery.  The only way I chose to buy and install this plug-in was through reading a review of the product but I was very pleasantly surprised with the functionality that I got for $55 for a single site license.

The Costs:

The single-site access license is going to cost you $55 however the functionality that it gives you to get an ecommerce website off the ground is simply amazing.

The developer access license is going to cost $299 if it’s the first time you are purchasing the plug-in however it gives you a lot more functionality and it can be deployed on an unlimited number of WordPress websites.  If you’ve already purchased a single-site license there is a developer access [upgrade] license available for $259 which is definitely a help to web designers and developers using this plug-in on multiple ecommerce websites.

Update! – December 29, 2010. – I recently had the chance to interview Jonathan Davis, the creator behind the Shopp plugin.  Please click here to read the interview!

Now, with this WordPress Plug-in you can create squeeze pages that aren’t specific to the theme you are using on your WordPress website and with this premium WordPress Plug-in.  Squeeze Plug-in works using a “widgetized GUI” that allows you to drag and drop elements into your own squeeze page from videos to forms and everything in between.  So what kind of things can you add into your squeeze page?  Here is a list of things that you can add to your squeeze pages using Squeeze Plug-in…

• Forms
• Videos
• Headlines
• Text
• Disclaimers
• Buttons
• Lists
• Testimonials
• Images

The plug-in itself is a great tool for people looking to construct squeeze pages with a high level of customization simply by dragging and dropping the aspects of your squeeze page you want to use.  Unique Blog Designs is going to be launching this plug-in on August 3, 2010 so be sure to pick it up when it comes out.

I personally use WordPress to run SpicyWebDesigners.com so these solutions focus around WordPress plugins primarily to help you save time with your SPAM troubles.

Akismet – This is the grandfather of SPAM plug-ins and in the world of WordPress you can use it to blast away your SPAM.  To many people it does just one thing… it works!  This plug-in is perfect for those that want to plug it into their website and forget about it.

Click here to get it

WP-SpamFree – This is another great SPAM plug-in.  It allows you the ability to blacklist certain SPAMMERS, Disabling Pings and Trackbacks, allowing or disallowing SPAMMERS hiding behind proxies to comment on your website and it also allows you to apply spam settings to contact forms on your website.

You can really lock down most inputs that are open and prone to SPAM with WP_SpamFree and track your website’s spam stats and display them on your website as well.  If you are a beginner then this plug-in might go a bit over your head or require some further learning on your part simply because you can configure everything in this plug-in

Click here to get it

Are you human?

The major problem with spam is that you cannot tell who is human and who’s a robot, spider or crawler simply by looking at the comment or message being sent sometimes.  The invention of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) in online forms, subscription pages and other input-based web pages has largely helped distinguish person from robot.  CAPTCHA works as a “Challenge Response” test which challenges a visitor showing up to your web page to enter a response which is then validated against the displayed challenge.  Challenges are based on a few characteristics including…

• Most humans can easily solve the challenge given
• Most software cannot accurate answer a CAPTCHA challenge making it difficult to SPAM
• It doesn’t rely on a type of CAPTCHA being new to the attacker

If you’ve ever entered a response to a graphic image, an obvious question like “Is fire hot?” or “what color is a fire truck?“ or a math problem then you’ve used CAPTCHA, probably without knowing it.  WordPress has a number of CAPTCHA based plug-ins that depending on what you want are available.

Peter’s Math Anti-Spam Plug-in – This plug-in uses CAPTCHA and math to challenge visitors on your website to respond and answer a simple math question like “What is 2 + 3?” when they comment on your website.  It certainly keeps the “spambots” away but it won’t stop human spammers from answering those simple math questions when they comment on your site.

Click here to get it

There are so many plugins out there to help you control your spam but try to stick to widely used and commonly updated plugins because they will provide you a better an established way to protect your website from spamming and the ability to update the plug-in on a regular basis.

After talking to Blair Williams and interviewing him the other week I was able to get my hands on a copy of Pretty Links Pro, a WordPress Plug-in that allows you to manage your links.  It’s the total link management package.

I’ve been using the free version of Pretty Links for a while and even the free version of Pretty Link is great and it boasts a lot of features making it the total link management package.  Originally I implemented the software to help put an end to affiliate link hijacking but I’ve found other uses for it recently allowing me to track links I post on my twitter account and other social media networking that I do currently.

Now for those of you those are new to the concept and practice of Link Management and aren’t sure exactly what it means it’s the management of links both inbound (coming to your website) and outbound (leaving your website).  Depending on how you choose to use Pretty Link it can be a very “eye-opening” experience.  When I created a pretty link and published it in a tweet on my twitter account I was surprised to see how many hits it received in only a few days.

Getting back to Pretty Link, first off, I am going to walk you through using the Pretty Link plug-in for the first time focusing specifically on how to create a pretty link and how to create a group for your pretty links.  With that, let’s get started!

Creating a Pretty Link

When you install Pretty Link it is available through the main dashboard and also through the “Settings” section in your WordPress website.  Once you get into the plug-in you can create a Pretty Link with a destination URL, which is a URL that you going to have people go to when they click on your Pretty Link, a title and description so that you can identify it in WordPress and your pretty link including a custom “slug” that you can add to the end of your pretty link.

There are additional options under the “Link Options [+]” section that allow you to choose a group that the pretty link belongs to, the ability to track the pretty link, the type of redirection you want to use (you have the option of 307, 301, Pixel, Cloaked and Pretty Bar) and SEO options for the links that you create.  When you’ve gone through all of this the last step is to simply click the “Create” button and you’ve got yourself a very pretty link.

Creating a Group for your Pretty Links

Creating a group using the Pretty Link plug-in allows you to categorize and group Pretty Links that you create for your website.  It’s useful if you are creating a great number of links in Pretty Link for different purposes and allows you to segment link management for your website.

Now that you know the basics of using Pretty Link let me take you through some of the benefits of upgrading to Pretty Link Pro for those of you that are interested in seeing what else this WordPress plug-in can offer you and your website.

Advantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

• Replacing URLS – This is a feature that is not currently available in the basic Pretty Link plug-in so you will need Pretty Link Pro for this functionality.  This particular functionality allows you to replace URLs with your pretty link and it’s very useful if you’ve got a large existing website and you are looking to update links quickly for specific affiliates or other link management activities.  Feel free to check out Blair’s video of how Pretty Link Pro accomplishes this by clicking here.
• Split Test your Links – Another great feature of setting up Pretty Link Pro is the ability to run split tests on your website also known as A/B tests.  Using the functionality built into Pretty Link Pro you can setup what are called “Target URL Rotations” for a link to test and see which page performs better.
• Rotate your target URLs – This feature much like it sounds allows you to “rotate” target URLs for ad rotations, A/B split tests and partnerships.
• Set up Conversion Reports – Conventionally conversion tracking is used when a sale is made online but conversions also relate to clicks, hits or a sign up for a mailing list.  Pretty Link Pro allows you to do this with your links and it really does give you intelligence over your website’s link management.

I could literally talk in greater depth about each feature but if you are looking for a great link management plug-in then this is one to definitely check out because it boasts and delivers so much functionality.

Disadvantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

This plug-in offers so much functionality that you may never use all of it.  The real disadvantage for people using this plug-in is that it caters to those people looking for ultimate link management and if you are a newbie then you may not understand everything this plug-in offers.

Reasons to buy this Plug-in

If you are looking to get a very comprehensive link management plug-in than you really need to check out Pretty Link and Pretty Link Pro.  I love the fact that you are able to import and export data to and from Pretty Link Pro, create custom reports and get access to advanced link management options when you purchase Pretty Link Pro.  Here are a few reasons that this plug-in is worth the money for those of you considering it.

• Help put an end to losing affiliate commissions
• Track links you post on social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Track specific links on your website to test their success
• Setup split testing to see which landing page performs better and allows you to earn more profits

Those are 4 really great reasons why you won’t be disappointed when you buy this plug-in.  It’s worth the investment to have this plug-in working for you on your website.

How much does it cost?

If you are looking for a WordPress plug-in that is going to give you the capabilities of link management like this one does the money, $97, which gives you unlimited updates and support on the plug-in is completely worth the money you are going to spend.  After all, it’s the links on your website that are going to make your business, site or blog more successful over time so how can you not invest in this?

Click here to read a little more about Blair Williams’, Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plug-in, click here!

In this posting I am going to provide some solutions that you can implement on your website to take advantage of canonical links for your website’s SEO efforts.  I’ve only decided to focus on Magento Commerce (an ecommerce platform) and WordPress (my CMS platform of choice) and I will be talking about 3 plug-ins in particular that when implemented will integrate the canonical linking structure to your website and web pages within your site.

The “All in one SEO Pack” for WordPress by Michael Torbert

Now I’ve used the All in One SEO Pack for a while now myself and the thing I really love about it is how easy it is to use.  You don’t need to be an SEO expert to understand what’s going on and all you need to do is click a checkbox and the canonical link structure will be added to your website.  Just have a look and see how easy it is to turn on the canonical link setting with the “All in one SEO Pack” WordPress plug-in by clicking here!

The “Canonical URLs for Magneto” Extension by Joost De Valk and Joachim Houtman

For those of you using Magento to run your ecommerce operations there is a simple extension that you can add to your Magento commerce installation.  When installed it adds the canonical link structure to your website’s header section allowing search engines to tell the unique links for the highly similar ones.  Click here to check out this Magento Extension

The “Canonical URLs for WordPress” Plug-in by Joost De Valk

It’s worth a mention as Joost De Valk of Yoast.com wrote this plug-in for WordPress users to take advantage of the canonical linking structure on WordPress sites specifically.  The plug-in itself is pretty straight forward and you can grab it here!

If you use any platform software like WordPress, Magento Commerce or one of the countless others check first to make sure the core platform architecture doesn’t already support canonical links and if it currently doesn’t i’d suggest you check out their plug-ins, extensions and add-ons to see if there is a solution to help you with this.  Happy “canonical-ing”!

Luc Arnold

I was able to talk with Pawan Agrawal from MaxBlogPress about some of the plug-ins that he is developing for WordPress. For those of you who are not familiar with MaxBlogPress if you get a chance to visit the site you’ll find a load of valuable tools and information to help you run your online business including one for the affiliates called the “Ninja Affiliate Plug-in”.

I had a chance to ask Pawan a few questions about how he first started designing plug-ins for WordPress, things that every WordPress site owner should know and a couple other questions so feel free to read on…

1. How did you get started designing and developing WordPress plug-ins and was this the original business that you started?

Actually, I started developing WordPress plug-ins for my own personal use. I had started using WordPress for my websites, when WordPress was in its early stages and blogging was slowly getting popular.

That’s when I started developing plug-ins

2. What are a few things that every WordPress site owner should now?

The first thing they should understand is that WordPress is not just for blogging. You can use it as a framework to build any kind of websites.

Second thing, there’s plenty of WordPress plug-ins available which can do almost all the things you need. Simply search in WordPress plug-ins directory and you’ll be surprised by the sheer number of plug-ins available according to your need.

3. Who should use the plug-ins at MaxBlogPress?

MaxBlogPress two main focuses for bloggers/website owners.

1. To help them get lots of visitors to their blog
2. To help them monetize their blogs for maximum income.

If any bloggers want to achieve both of these objectives then MaxBlogPress is the perfect place to make those objectives true.

4. What are some of the benefits of getting the Ninja Affiliate plug in for website owners interested in this particular plug in?

The most important benefit of the ninja affiliate is that it converts any keywords in blogs/comments to affiliate links. That means the old posts which were sitting there in the blog will now be a good money maker for the bloggers.

This plug-in will also track and cloaks the affiliate link so that a user can know how well his/her marketing effort is doing.

Pawan developed a plug-in called “Affiliate Ninja” which allows users who buy it and implement it to do the following…

• An easy way to manage affiliates links
• Create professional redirects with ease
• Manage your links using groups
• Prevent Affiliate link theft
• Transform keywords into links
• Ability to use “No-Follow” links

This plug-in normally retails for $97 but Pawan has decided to offer a discount for the next 4 days (expires September 21^st, 2009 at Midnight) of $30 off for people who buy through this link (click here to get your discount). You get the Affiliate Ninja plug-in for $67! Click here and get it today!