Tag Archives: code

Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

Posted on by

You may have seen recently that we merged StudioPress, creator of the powerful Genesis theme framework , into Copyblogger Media. Why did we do it? I can sum it up for you in a single phrase: because we’re control freaks . With Genesis, we saw an opportunity to create WordPress themes that were tailored exactly to our customers’ needs and desires. We could incorporate the features that are most important for content-rich sites, the expert SEO you insist on, and the security to keep your sites as safe as possible. Brian and I worked closely with Genesis founder (and our new partner) Brian Gardner on a new collaboration. A WordPress theme designed for those of you — bloggers, copywriters, consultants, and content marketers — who in one way or another produce great content to make a living or part-time income. I’d like to introduce you to Prose . An elegant minimalist design The first thing we knew was that we wanted the design to support your content, not fight with it. Some themes make great use of animated widgets, or are designed to highlight striking imagery. Or they’re great for e-commerce, or building a corporate brand. And Genesis has terrific themes that do all of those. Prose is something different. It’s all about words. Your words. It’s simple and elegant, so it doesn’t distract. But it has enough design sophistication that it never looks amateurish or “fly by night.” Like the perfect little black dress, it doesn’t call attention to itself … it just makes you look amazing. Point and click design controls But just because you may not be first and foremost a designer, that doesn’t mean you want to commit yourself to a single rigid design mold. Writers are creative people, after all. And we knew you’d insist on being able to change some key elements yourself, without “breaking” the overall clean, designed look of the theme. That’s why we built in point-and-click design controls into Prose. They let you control site colors, typefaces, font sizes, and other critical elements of your site design. Instantly. Do your readers want a larger font size? That’s just a few clicks away, starting right from your WordPress dashboard. Want to try a different column layout for your site, or to change the look of your subheads? Takes less than a minute. And if you don’t like it, it’s a few clicks to change it back again. You can change how your links are styled, how tall you want your header to be, and dozens of other key design elements. And you don’t have to know any CSS, HTML, PHP, or any other letters. If you can point and click, you can customize your site design. Search optimized and powered by Genesis You might have seen that Genesis isn’t just a WordPress theme, it’s actually what’s called a theme framework. So my first question when I saw that was, What’s a theme framework? The first thing you need to know is that when it comes to web design, form and function need to be separated . In other words, how your web page works (like the code that Google looks at to find your content and how to rank it, or the security that keeps evildoers from hacking your blog) should be separated from how your web page looks . Why? Well, in the first place, Google is a big fan of clean code. The Google “bots” are sophisticated, but they’re only so smart. Clunky, junked-up code can confuse them — and if Google gets confused, they won’t give your site the ranking you deserve. In the second place, the web evolves. Those “back end” elements always need to be up-to-date. Security evolves, SEO evolves, WordPress evolves, and your page function needs to grow with those things so that everything works the way it should. But the last thing you want is for your carefully designed web page to suddenly look completely different because you updated your WordPress theme. That’s the beauty of a framework. When you click the button to update Genesis, it automatically takes care of all of those security and SEO issues for you. But it doesn’t touch the design of the page, because that’s handled by “child themes.” OK, so what’s a child theme? The theme framework is all about how the site works . A child theme (like Prose and 27 others from StudioPress ) is in charge of how the site looks . The colors. The layout. The typefaces. The child theme controls the “look and feel” of your site. And the exact same content will have a very different feel depending on how that content gets presented. The nice thing about child themes is that with the Genesis framework, you can change them in just minutes. That means you can take a funky site with a handmade flavor, like the Genesis Bee Crafty theme, and in about two minutes you can give that exact same content a sleek professional gloss by switching to the Enterprise theme. And you’ll never touch the important “behind the scenes” code that makes your site work exactly the way you want it to. The biggest security hazard for most blogs Unfortunately, bad guys are everywhere, and blogs get hacked every day. The most common culprit? Bloggers who haven’t updated their theme or their WordPress installation because they’re worried it will mess up the look and usability of their sites. Outdated software is a major security hazard. In fact, Brian Gardner told me that one of the reasons he developed the Genesis framework in the first place was to make updating his own sites one-click-easy. When it’s easy for you to update WordPress and your theme framework, and you don’t worry about anything breaking, you won’t put it off. And that keeps your blog (and your readers) safer. Get Prose + Genesis today Pick up Prose with Genesis today and you’ll get: Prose’s point-and-click design controls to create the exact look you want A great-looking theme that puts the focus on your content All the SEO and security benefits of the Genesis Framework Unlimited updates and support The ability to use Prose on as many sites as you like (no developer surcharge) Find out more about the best WordPress theme for writers and content marketers here. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Follow her on twitter .

5996c6e461prose.png 150x41 Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

Read this article:
Announcing the Prose Theme for WordPress

Two Conferences for Serious Online Marketers

Posted on by

In addition to our keynote at BlogWorld this month , I’ll be speaking at two other conferences this fall. If you’re serious about building your business with online content, search marketing, and social media, you’ll want to seriously consider attending one or both. 1. BlueGlass Florida – November 2-3, 2010 BlueGlass Internet Marketing Conferences feature the top social media and search marketing industry experts to give you the best in topics, trends, strategies and networking possibilities. The event is produced by BlueGlass Interactive , the powerhouse combination of several top SEO and online marketing firms (including my friends Chris Winfield, Loren Baker, and Greg Boser, plus search and viral marketing ninjas Dave Snyder and Brent Csutoras). I’ll be speaking on a panel that kicks off the conference called Online PR – The Art of Getting Your Business Talked About along with Peter Shankman and Lisa Buyer . The entire line-up of speakers is fantastic. Important! If you’d like to save 15% off the conference fee, use copy15 when you register. Hope to see you in Fort Lauderdale. Register for BlueGlass Florida here . 2. PubCon Las Vegas – November 8-11, 2010 PubCon Las Vegas is legendary as a gathering point for serious webmasters to learn, network, and drink themselves silly. Even if you skip the drinking part, PubCon provides some of the best education about online marketing you’ll find at a conference. This year, I’ll be doing a keynote panel along with New Marketing Labs president Chris Brogan , social media firm UnMarketing president Scott Stratten , and Sevans Strategy founder Sarah Evans . Can one stage hold all that ego? You’ll have to show up to find out. And you’ll save 20% when you use this code to register online – cb-5671220 . Register for PubCon Las Vegas here . About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

59d0a5b49fs logo.png 150x37 Two Conferences for Serious Online Marketers

Continued here:
Two Conferences for Serious Online Marketers

Come Together, Right Now: Introducing Copyblogger Media

Posted on by

Over the last 4 years, I’ve launched several companies from this simple blog of mine. The idea that building an audience with content and letting the revenue-generating ideas, products, and services reveal themselves based on what the audience actually wants has worked out amazingly well. It’s become a full-fledged business model. And yet, there’s a bigger picture. These last years I’ve been putting together pieces of a broader vision – things that work together as one, for our internal use and for you. Problem was, the only common element in each of these different companies was me, and often that made unity of purpose difficult. So, this is an announcement of a coming together of my various companies, plus the addition of a valued outside venture. And right about now, you’re thinking… Who Cares? I know, it’s hard to get excited about what’s essentially a press release of a merger. Hot stuff, right? And yet, any great company exists not for its shareholders or employees, but for the people it serves. And we’re aiming to be a great company. So, let me first tell you who’s involved. And then I’ll tell you what we’ll be doing better for you. The People Here are the principals of our new organization: Brian Clark – As CEO of Copyblogger Media, I’ll be working for the other four people on this list. Sonia Simone – At the beginning of 2009, Sonia was naive enough to leave her corporate job to become Senior Editor of Copyblogger, and later co-founded Third Tribe . She’s now Chief Marketing Officer of Copyblogger Media, and an owner. So far, so good. Tony Clark - Tony and I co-created Teaching Sells , and he’s the wizard behind the curtain inside Third Tribe. He’s also putting the finishing touches on a new WordPress product called Premise . His preferred title is “awesomeness.” Sean Jackson – Sean is the creator of Scribe (along with one of our code ninjas, Chris Thompson), which is now a core product of Copyblogger Media. He’s also our CFO, a great tech mind, and a shrewd Ms. Pacman player. Brian Gardner – Brian is the founder of StudioPress, creator of the Genesis Framework for WordPress , and a ton of turnkey designs that work with it . Brian and his team have earned over 30,000 customers to date, and their merger into Copyblogger Media completes the online content creation trinity of Genesis, Scribe, and Premise. What About Chris Pearson and Thesis? Things change. Chris and I have parted ways, and we’re both happy with this mutual decision. We at Copyblogger Media wish Chris and DIY Themes all the best with future endeavours. The Plan Having all these great people in one company allows us to do even bigger and better things. This means better products, prices, and support. It also means more and better free content, unique live events, and even new platforms. We’ll be sharing more details in the months to come. But what about you? What would you like from us? Let’s start a conversation in the comments. Because without you, none of us would have a job we love. About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

imagebutton Come Together, Right Now: Introducing Copyblogger Media

Visit link:
Come Together, Right Now: Introducing Copyblogger Media

Scribe: New Versions & Better Features (And a Great Deal Ending Soon)

Posted on by

There’s a whole bunch that’s new and improved with Scribe – our content optimization service that makes SEO copywriting simple. Plus, we’ve got a fantastic promotion that’s coming quickly to an end. Because there’s so much to talk about, I’m going to give you a quick bullet point summary that also serves as hyperlinked navigation for this post. Let’s go: What’s Scribe? A great deal on Scribe (ending Friday, June 4th) New integrated keyword suggestion tool Scribe 2.0 for WordPress Scribe for Joomla Scribe for Drupal All versions of Scribe included Free SEO copywriting podcast What’s Scribe? First, let’s not assume everyone knows what Scribe is or does. Here’s a quick summary. Scribe is a search engine optimization software service that analyzes the content of web pages, blog posts, online press releases, or any other web content … all at the click of a button. Next, Scribe reports back and tells you how to tweak your content to get better search engine rankings and more traffic, all while maintaining quality reader-focused copy. Find out more about Scribe here . A great deal on Scribe (ending Friday, June 4th) A few weeks ago, I released a free report on SEO copywriting that contained a special deal on Scribe if you used the promotional code PROMO27. That promotion is ending this Friday, June 4, 2010. Here’s the deal: With PROMO27, you get 300 monthly evaluations (our largest Advanced Plan) for only $27 a month. The Advanced Plan is usually $97 a month, so this is some serious savings. Here’s how to get that great deal before time runs out: Head over to the Scribe site to check out the demo videos, testimonials, and all the ways Scribe makes SEO copywriting simple. When you’re ready, go to the Plans and Pricing page . Select the Advanced Plan on the far left and click Sign Up. Create an account, and click Register. In the Promo Code field on the next page, enter PROMO27. Once you’ve completed your purchase, you’ll see you’ve been subscribed to the Advanced Plan for $27 per month instead of the usual $97. Remember, the code PROMO27 is the key to the deal, so don’t forget to enter it. But it won’t work after 5:00 p.m. Central on Friday, June 4, 2010, so hurry (because we’ll never be offering this deal again). Get started with Scribe today . New integrated keyword suggestion tool The coolest new feature in Scribe is the new alternate keyword suggestion tool. This new tab shows you alternate related keywords relevant to your content, and the search volume for each term. You’ll now discover other keyword phrases you should be targeting – either for more traffic or less competition – all from inside an version of Scribe. This is just one more way Scribe makes content optimization more efficient and effective. Scribe 2.0 for WordPress We’ve released a new version of Scribe for WordPress. Here’s what’s new: 1. You already know about the new integrated keyword suggestion tool for researching and evaluating keyword options based on search frequency. 2. You can now restrict or allow Scribe access for different authors/users. 3. You can manually select the theme or plugin you wish to use with Scribe. 4. You can now use Scribe for WordPress with WooThemes, the wpSEO plug-in, and the Platinum SEO plug-in. 5. We’ve corrected a bug that caused some WordPress pages to not analyze properly. 6. There’s now an enhanced Scribe widget box that shows you the number of evaluations you have left while editing. 7. Scribe WP is ready for the impending release of WordPress 3.0. Watch the demo video for Scribe WordPress . Scribe for Joomla Scribe now works with the Joomla CMS thanks to the hard work of Joomla guru Barrie North of Joomla Shack and Harry Hopkins from Reliable Studios . Just as with Scribe WordPress, you can now optimize content for Joomla without ever leaving your Joomla control panel. Watch the demo video for Scribe Joomla . Scribe for Drupal Scribe now works with the Joomla CMS thanks to the hard work of Drupal master Tom McCracken of Level Ten Design . Same story here … as with Scribe for WordPress and Joomla, the Scribe technology is fully integrated into the Drupal control panel. Watch a demo video for Scribe Drupal . All versions of Scribe included A lot of you publish on multiple platforms, or have clients who do. So when you subscribe to Scribe, you get Scribe Web and Scribe for WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, all inclusive. This will likely not always be the case, so yet another reason to get on board with Scribe today . Free SEO copywriting podcast Check out the podcast I did recently with John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing about SEO copywriting . This conversation combined with my free report will make your use of Scribe even more effective and efficient. About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

a546660668468x60.jpg 150x19 Scribe: New Versions & Better Features (And a Great Deal Ending Soon)

View post:
Scribe: New Versions & Better Features (And a Great Deal Ending Soon)

Walk Dogs for $105,000 a Year (Or Make a Living Doing What *You* Love)

Posted on by

I recently put out the word that I wanted to interview small business owners for an upcoming project, the Empire Building Kit . These were the criteria: you had to net at least $50,000 a year with two or fewer employees, you had to be willing to talk about money in specific terms, you had to share your biggest mistakes as well as your greatest successes, and you couldn’t be a professional blogger. (Obviously there’s nothing wrong with professional blogging — I just figure that bloggers get enough attention already. Besides, if you want to create a business , there are much easier models.) I heard back from 300 people with all kinds of different backgrounds, but Lisa’s email stood out from the rest. I have a dog-walking business in Minnesota. Can I contribute my story? I’ll be honest: I didn’t think much of it at first. A dog-walker? Shouldn’t we be talking about affiliate marketing, information products, and Facebook ads? Walking dogs around the park for cash isn’t really my thing, so I assumed I’d say no. But then Lisa told me how much money she makes: $88,342 in 2009, and now on track for $105,000 in 2010. That got my attention. She makes six figures as a dog-walker? Wow. Now that’s a story. And in marketing, of course, story is everything. If you can build a real business around something you’re passionate about — in this case, Lisa loves dogs — I think that’s worth some attention. Follow your passion? Yes . . . sort of The thing about following your passion to the bank isn’t so much overrated as it is incomplete. Finding a way to get paid for doing what you love is both feasible and sustainable. The trick is to construct a lifestyle business around something you’re passionate about that other people are willing to spend money on . The difference is crucial: I can be passionate about eating pizza and playing video games, but so far I haven’t found anyone willing to pay me for it. Therefore, I have to orient my business not only around my own interests, but also around what other people are willing to pay for. I built the rest of the Empire Building Kit around conversations and insights from people like Lisa. The photographer, the triathlon coach, the translator, the guy who makes baseball art, the murder mystery host, and so on. You’ve probably never heard of most of them, but they’re doing very well doing something they love. Last month I released the product on board a 44-hour Empire Builder train from Chicago to Portland. It was a huge success, with rave reviews from our inaugural group of emperors — and a freaked out merchant account that wanted to know why so many sales were rolling in. Long story short, today I’m doing it again. It’s for 24-hours only, before I get on a plane and head overseas as part of my quest to visit every country in the world. If you’re interested in joining the inaugural group of new emperors, I’d love to have you on board . All the details The goal of the Empire Building Kit is to help people build a business in one year by doing one thing every day. To that end, I’ve compiled a truckload of resources and hand-holding to make sure that happens. The Kit includes: 15+ Case Studies. From 300 initial respondents, I narrowed it down to more than 15 thriving emperors from at least as many different backgrounds. I asked for their stories, their secrets, what they wish they had known before they started. The case studies come in a variety of formats: video interviews, MP3 files, PDFs, with complete transcripts. So you can get the most out of them no matter what your learning style. 365-step Email Series. You get one mini-lesson today, one tomorrow, and 363 more over the rest of the next year. According to the folks at Aweber, it’s officially the longest follow-up series in their history. The key is: if you do one thing a day, it will be much easier than trying to do everything at once. But you also have to make sure you’re doing the right things, so we help with that too. A 52-step Product Launch checklist. Even if you’re not launching from the “bloggers’ lounge” onboard an Amtrak train, something always goes wrong with a product launch. Use this checklist to avoid big mistakes, and dramatically increase revenue. One step produces an average revenue increase of 30% every launch, no matter the price of the product. Another step ensures you can sleep at night by not screwing up the confirmation emails. And so on. “Show Me the Money” module. All the details from behind the scenes of my own Unconventional Guides business. You’ll learn how much money each product brings in, where I’ve screwed up, where I hit it big, and so on. Ok, so I could go on about all of that for a while. But what you really get is insight and context from people who have successfully cracked the code of following your passion. They all talk about money, they are all extremely candid, and they’re all real people doing fun things while getting paid. Care to join Lisa and the rest of us? You can find out all about it right here , but it’s only available for 24 hours, ending Wednesday morning at 9am Pacific Time . And if it’s not a good fit for you, of course, that’s fine too. Most importantly, I hope your business is as enjoyable as Lisa’s — and as enjoyable as mine. About the Author: Chris Guillebeau travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at chrisguillebeau.com . Follow his live updates from every country in the world at twitter.com/chrisguillebeau .

8734f03c21timage.jpg 150x128 Walk Dogs for $105,000 a Year (Or Make a Living Doing What *You* Love)

Follow this link:
Walk Dogs for $105,000 a Year (Or Make a Living Doing What *You* Love)