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Comparing WordPress Video User Manuals

By Ari Salomon | Published: June 23, 2015

Jetpack

Monthly plan price # of WordPress core videos # of WordPress plugin videos # of other videos

Video User Manuals

Video User Manuals

  $24.00 41 18  26
vseo4  $49.50  42  0  0
vseo3 $24.00  25  8  2
vseo2  $24.75 43  16  42

Video User Manuals

The team at Video User Manuals have been around since early 2008. They are the original and first plugin to put video tutorials in the WordPress dashboard for clients. All the videos use a non-technical language and clear graphics, making them quite easy to understand. The videos can be watched in English (American, British and Australian accents available) or Spanish and they are categorized into the following sections:

Section # of Videos Section # of Videos
Dashboard 2 Widgets 1
Editor 11 Menus 3
Images 10 Yoast SEO (a free plugin) 4
Pages 3 WooCommerce (a free plugin) 7
Media 2 WooCommerce Products 7
Posts 7 Google Analytics Setup (not a WordPress feature) 11
Comments 1 Google Analytics Reports 10
Profile 1 Gravity Forms (a paid plugin) 5
comparing1

The plugin is fully brandable and customizable. It is possible to turn off individual videos or entire sections of videos and add your own videos.

comparing2

The videos are always opened in a new tab and the user has to come back to the previous tab to have access to the other videos—not very efficient.

It is also provides a Word and PDF document with every subscription that you can customize and rebrand as your own—but it’s not part of the WordPress plugin. And also there is the option to hide the settings from Admins.

Note there is no button to watch the video in full screen mode but if you increase the width of the popup window

There are three plans available:

  • Single: $70.00 (flat rate)
  • Developer: $24.00 per month (First month only $1)
  • Saver: $240.00 per year (First two month free)

VUM-all-videosComplete list of videos:

  1. Dashboard Videos
    1. The Dashboard
    2. The Admin Bar
  2. Editor Videos
    1. Hyperlinks
    2. Lists
    3. Embed Video
    4. Distraction-Free Writing
    5. The Toolbar
    6. Paste From Word
    7. Add A Heading
    8. Add A Paragraph
    9. Edit Text
    10. Revisions
    11. Audio Video Playlists
  3. Images Videos
    1. Add Media From Media Library
    2. Add Image From Computer
    3. Add Image From URL
    4. Delete Image
    5. Edit Image
    6. Image Editor
    7. Rotate and Flip Images
    8. Crop and Scale Images
    9. Featured Image
    10. Image Galleries
  4. Pages Videos
    1. Add New Page
    2. Trash A Page
    3. Restore A Page
  5. Media Videos
    1. Media Library
    2. Add Media
  6. Posts Videos
    1. Add New Post
    2. Trash A Post
    3. Restore A Post
    4. Categories
    5. Tags
    6. Quick Draft
    7. The Excerpt
  7. Comments Videos
    1. Comments
  8. Profile Videos
    1. Change Your Password
  9. Widgets Videos
    1. Widgets
  10. Menus Videos
    1. Add A Page To A Menu
    2. Moving Menu Items
    3. Add Custom Links
  11. SEO Videos
    1. General
    2. Page Analysis
    3. Social
    4. Profile
  12. WooCommerce Videos
    1. Categories
    2. Tags
    3. Shipping Classes
    4. Attributes
    5. Orders
    6. Reports
    7. Coupons
  13. WooCommerce Products Videos
    1. Add a Product
    2. Simple Product
    3. Grouped Product
    4. External Product
    5. Variable Product
    6. Downloadable Product
    7. Product Overview
  14. Google Analytics Setup Videos
    1. Importance Of Digital Analytics
    2. Core Analysis Techniques
    3. Conversions And Marketing Attribution
    4. Creating A Measurement Plan
    5. How Google Analytics works
    6. Key Metrics And Dimensions
    7. Creating An Account
    8. Understanding Account Structure
    9. Setting Up Basic Filters
    10. Setting Up Goals
    11. Collecting Campaign Data
  15. Google Analytics Reports Videos
    1. Reporting Overview
    2. Audience Reports
    3. Acquisition Reports
    4. AdWords Reports
    5. Behavior Reports
    6. Custom Reports And Dashboards
    7. Goal Flow Report
    8. Ecommerce Reports
    9. Multi-Channel Funnels Reports
    10. Attribution Reports
  16. Gravity Forms Videos
    1. Add A New Form
    2. Form Editor
    3. Form Settings
    4. Form Entries
    5. Form Preview

WPMU DEV

Founded in 2005, WPMU DEV offers more than 350 WordPress plugins, themes and unlimited support. The WordPress tutorial videos are very detailed and straightforward, with a clean and clear interface, making them suitable for entry level users. The videos available are categorized into the following sections:

Section # of Videos
The Dashboard 4 Media Library 3
Posts 4 Appearance 4
Pages 4 Organizing Content 2
The Visual Editor 9 Managing Comments 1
Working with Images 8 Users, Tools and Settings 3
comparing3

This is basically the only page of this plugin. Its interface is more efficient, the list of videos are always displayed below the video that is currently playing and the tutorials are not opened in a new tab.

The only language available is English and there is no written documentation available. All the videos will always be displayed to the admin and they can be watched in full screen mode. Even though the videos do not cover all the content covered by Video User Manuals, they covered most of the content in fewer and more dynamic videos.

There are three plans available:

  • Monthly: $49.50
  • Quarterly: $34.50 per month
  • Yearly: $24.50 per month

WP101

WP101 was launched back in 2008 by Shawn Hesketh, a freelance designer and WordPress consultant who has been creating websites since 1994. Over at Shawn’s website, he gives advice and shares his experience of running a membership site with 20,000 members, as well as offering his custom WordPress video service.

comparing4

This is how the videos are displayed.

Some characteristics of this tool are:

  • Male voice-over
  • Video length: 5-6 mins
  • Outlines under each video help user pay more attention to the objectives of the videoIt compares different functions at a theoretical level, reinforces the content to help user memorize (E.g., post VS page)
  • A brief summary and an intro of the next session is included at the end of each video
  • Contains a specific tutorial about SEO in WordPress
  • Keep updating content according to customer needs, the upcoming videos include “intro to gravity forms” “Jetpack Series”

The tutorial available are:

  1. What Is WordPress?
  2. WordPress.Com Or WordPress.Org?
  3. How To Install WordPress
  4. The WordPress Dashboard
  5. Posts Vs Pages
  6. The WordPress Editor
  7. Creating A New Post
  8. Post Formats
  9. Edit An Existing Post
  10. Using Categories And Tags
  11. Creating And Editing Pages
  12. Adding Photos And Images
  13. How To Embed Video And Audio
  14. Using The Media Library
  15. Managing Comments
  16. How To Create A Link
  17. Changing The Theme
  18. Adding Widgets
  19. Building Custom Menus
  20. Installing Plugins
  21. Adding New Users
  22. WordPress Tools
  23. WordPress Settings
  24. Undoing Mistakes With Post Revisions Understanding Permalinks
  25. Introduction To Custom Fields
  26. What Is RSs?
  27. Updating WordPress
  28. WordPress Seo Plugin: General Tab
  29. WordPress Seo Plugin: Page Analysis Tab WordPress Seo Plugin: Advanced Tab
  30. WordPress Seo Plugin: General Settings WordPress Seo Plugin: Titles & Metas Settings WordPress Seo Plugin: Social Settings
  31. WordPress Seo Plugin: Xml Sitemaps
  32. WordPress Seo Plugin: Breadcrumbs
  33. WordPress Seo Plugin: Permalink Settings WordPress Seo Plugin: Rss Settings
  34. WordPress Seo Plugin: Tools
  35. WordPress Seo Premium: Redirect Manager WordPress Seo Premium: Google Webmaster Tools

The plans available are:

  • Monthly: $24/month
  • Annual: $ 39 /year
  • Lifetime access: $159

WPSessions

WPSessions was launched in 2013 and provides high quality content to help train the greater WordPress community.

WPSessions is specialized in training WordPress developers and business owners in a simple way and the content is created and supported by WordPress experts, so the tutorials are always updated.

The videos available are categorized into the following sections:

 Section # of Videos
Your First WordPress Plugin 43 Lessons
Mastering Sass: From Beginner to Expert 17 Lessons
Using the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate 16 Lessons
How to Optimize WordPress Performance 25 Lessons
How to Build a Membership Site In Production!
Bashing Your Way with WP-CLI In Production!
BuddyPress Mastery: For Users and Developers In Production!
Up and Running with Unit Tests  In Production!

The plans available are:

  • Pay by Sessions: $30 per session
  • VIP membership: $24.75 per month

WordPress.tv

On WordPress TV you can access screencasts, video presentations and WordCamp videos, and you can post your own videos as well. Their number one objective is to share quality content and show the users how to use WordPress and do awesome things with it.

The website is a moderated community and the videos they publish are for the benefit of all users of WordPress. As such, their content is meant to be a reflection of the values of the WordPress project.

They also have a blog, so the users can keep it up with all the WordPress news and events.

Finally, to choose which is best for your customers, you should know how much they know about WordPress and what are the features they use, because even though Video User Manuals covers extra content like Gravity Forms, WooCommerce and SEO, the videos explain the content more slowly compared to WPMU DEV, but it still explains the content thoroughly.

Visit the official websites:

Posted in WordPress | Tagged , | 1 Response

Deprecated Facebook Like Box / “Page Plugin”

By Ari Salomon | Published: June 21, 2015

Facebook is changing the way users can employ the “Like Box Widget”. I have no idea why – it’s yet another change to their code that makes us developers and website owners jump through extra hoops. The Like Box is deprecated and will stop working on June 23rd, 2015.

The bad news was that this new “Page Plugin” version was going to require a minimum width of 280 pixels but thankfully  Facebook changed it’s mind and will continue to allow narrower widths. Currently the allowed range is 180 to 500 pixels wide.

What is the Like Box?

Facebook provides a “Like Box” or “Page Plugin” that lets you easily embed and promote any Facebook Page on your website. The key advantage is that your visitors can like and share the Page without having to leave your site. The code you put on your page talks to Facebook and Facebook can tell if a user is logged into Facebook and then find connections between their friends and your page – and then show only the relevant faces. That’s a great way to add authority to your site.

So, this widget has:

  • Link to the page
  • Like button: Click Like to share and connect with things from other websites that you find interesting
  • Share button: Click Share to write something about a link and then post it to your Timeline
  • Faces (optional)
  • “Page posts” (Embedded posts): Adds public posts from Facebook page (optional)
  • Cover photo (optional)

WordPress plugin options

There are two plugins I like to use: The Facebook Like Box Plugin lets you easily embed and promote any Facebook Page on your WordPress website without having to grab the code from facebook.com. This plugin was updated and will automatically move over to using the new “Page Plugin” – but you will want to review the new options to make sure they match your site – especially the “cover” photo.

TIP: there is a little typo in this plugin – the “hide cover photo” option appears twice. The 2nd time that option appears it actual should say “hide faces”, so if you set it to ‘false’ then it will show faces.

The other plugin is part of Jetpack. They are aware of this issue and also make note that: Apparently If you do not manually upgrade the Page Plugin (which this PR does), the Like Box plugin implementation will automatically fall back to the Page Plugin on June 23rd 2015.

Here is the warning  about the update that will  make the old version stop working:

facebook_warning

There a few improvements in this new version, such as:

  • There are more options to customize the plugin
  • The dimensions are more flexible
  • The “Share” button is not cut when the width is lower than 280px
  • The design is more modern
Screen Shot 2015-06-12 at 4.07.19 AM

It’s quite easy to customize your plugin and you can see how it looks like right away, in the box down below.

The first and last images show how the widget looks like with the maximum and minimum width, respectively. Notice that the share button is removed when the width is lower than 280px, avoiding design issues.

Official page: Page Plugin

Posted in Web Design | 1 Response

Comparing SEO Tracking Tools: free alternatives to AuthorityLabs

By Ari Salomon | Published: June 10, 2015

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. If your site is higher ranked on the SERP (search engine results page) it will generally get more visitors, more ad views, more sales etc.

Many businesses target a lot of keywords to track and know how hard it is to keep it all straight. It’s good to start tracking now so you can see how your target keywords are performing over time. I have been focused on tools that are web-based. Ideally the tools would be simple — most small businesses don’t really want the geeky interface some tools offer — info overload  that is only appropriate to an SEO professional. Some find it useful to track their competition also.

Tracking links to your web pages is a major part of any SEO strategy. Fortunately, there are many tools to provide a comprehensive view of where your web pages stand. Here I will talk about four of those tools: AuthorityLabs SEO, Microsite Masters Rank Tracker, Wincher, and TinyRocketLab.

AuthorityLabs

AuthorityLabs started in 2008 and gained a strong reputation in delivering search engine ranking monitoring services. AuthorityLabs has three plans available, and it is the only one that does not offer a free plan, but it offers a free 30 days trial and it is the most complete tool.

SEOscreenshot_lab1

Some of its special features are:

  • Daily Data: Daily rank checking is provided on all accounts to give you the best opportunity to react to changes in the search results.
  • Local Results: Track search results at the city or postal code level for the most accurate and granular reporting available.
  • Global Tracking: Easily add domains or pages to be tracked from any country and language offered by Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
  • It provides all the important ranking reports, option to download and export to CSV and PDF format.
  • Emailable, automated reports available

SEOscreenshot_lab2

AuthorityLabs tracks Google, Yahoo and Bing, you can generate the graph selecting the time range, and you can also see how the graph was in a specific date in the past, this way you have total access to the keywords history.

Visit the official website: www.authoritylabs.com

 

Microsite Masters Rank Tracker

This tool was launched in 2009 and offers comprehensive rank tracking services. The first thing that you should know about Microsite Masters is that you can join for free and track up to 10 keywords, then you can update your account anytime toward one of the following plans:

SEOscreenshot_micrositemasters2
This tool tracks Google, Yahoo and Bing. It is the most complete free tool and the most similar to AuthorityLabs.

The dashboard of rankings (and the interface in general) is very user friendly and all features available are well organized on the left sidebar.

SEOscreenshot_micrositemasters1

One other cool feature is the Customized Report, which allows you to easily export the report into Excel or PSD Files and share with clients and partners. There are advanced tracking metrics to determine campaign efficiency and there is the possibility to generate graphs of each keyword to view the site’s rankings, and also where other sites rank for each keyword you track.

  • Emailable, automated reports available

SEOscreenshot_micrositemasters3

In this tool you can also generate graphs within a specific time range, but it differs from the AuthorityLabs graphs because AuthorityLabs compares all the keywords and the Microsite Masters compares each keyword by search engine.

Visit the official website: www.micrositemasters.com

 

Wincher

This tool offers two plans, both with unlimited numbers of keywords, but the free one has weekly updates, while the paid one has daily updates and costs €6.

Wincher is a simpler tool when compared to the previous ones and it just tracks Google, but it does everything it should and has the most user friendly interface, with all the rankings, graphs, keywords information, etc.

SEOscreenshot_wincher1 SEOscreenshot_wincher2

The main features are:

  • Easy search engine monitoring: Add your important keywords. We notify you when something big happens.
  • Get a grip of your Ranking history: We save ranking data every day for your keywords.
  • Dynamic low price: Add domains and keywords of your choice. Pay only for what you use.
  • Daily ranking updates: Your domain rankings on chosen keywords updates daily. And of course your competitors position as well.
  • Ranking alerts: Wincher alerts you when important changes take place!
  • Easy sharing: You can easily share your ranking success via social media.

Visit the official website: www.wincher.com

 

TinyRocketLab

This is the newest contender to join the market — in 2013. The plans available are:

SEOscreenshot_tinyrocketlab1

Key information such as keyword progress and visibility is shown in the Dashboard, and a graph is available as well. TinyRocketLab is even simpler than Wincher and offer a little less information about the keywords, but it’s not a bad tool, it’s just less detailed-oriented.

However, there is the Task management feature, that allows you to work with your team, create tasks and experiments. This is something unique among the rank trackers.

SEOscreenshot_tinyrocketlab2

 

Visit the official website: www.tinyrocketlab.com

MORE SEO RESOURCES

  • This article is very developer focused but lists some great SEO tools.
  • the place to start keyword research is here: Google Keyword Tool.  You input a series of search terms and Google tells you how many people searched for those terms, and searched for related terms, both globally and locally.  Click on the headings at the top of the table to sort by keyword, number of searches or competition. Competition is a measurement of how many people are actively marketing on that term through Google Adwords. This gives you some idea of how hard it may be to rank for the term.
  • Google Insights for Search:  Some search terms are just better than others, and search term value changes over time.  Google Insights for Search lets you rank keywords against one another and lets you see their performance over time.  The best thing, from a marketing perspective, it to have a website that sits on a keyword which is starting a meteoric rise.  For example, if you are the only cell phone accessory store with content about the iPhone the week the iPhone is announced, and your site is equipped to close sales, you’ll likely draw a lot of traffic and sell a lot of product.
  • Also a nice Beginners guide: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo 
  • UPDATE: RankScanner has a great looking WordPress plugin. 5 keywords free, up to 30 free if you refer others to free  accounts. 9€ /month for 100 keywords.
Posted in Product Reviews, Web Design | Tagged | 4 Responses

The difference between “custom content type” and “custom post type” and how to use them

By Ari Salomon | Published: May 2, 2015

CPT-IN-WORDPRESS-ADMIN“Custom Content Types“ (CCT) or “Custom Post Types” (CPT) are the same thing:  ways to group together similar types of content. “Custom Post Types” is the official name since WordPress started with “posts” but I think it’s more useful to think of them as types of  “content”. They are stored just like posts and pages with a unique ID (what Drupal calls a ‘node’), but aren’t considered the same as a post or a page. WordPress comes with 2 main default content types: posts and pages. Technically these are also CPTs: menus, media/attachments and links (an older default that won’t appear on newer WP sites).

Taxonomies are ways to categorize CPTs. Tags and Categories are the default taxonomies for Posts. If you are building a food website perhaps “color”, “flavor” and “season” would be usefully custom taxonomies. Tags and Categories are very similar but have a different admin interface and only Categories allow for nested (“parent/child”) sub-categories. Only “posts” are in the main default RSS feed but WordPress automatically builds an RSS feed for each taxonomy item and each CPT.

Custom Page Templates are special files for WordPress that control how content will be displayed. They are used only with pages in WordPress, not with posts or CPTs.

Here’s a breakdown:
CPT data types

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Menus, Attachments (Media), and Revisions (technically CPTs but not as useful to think of them in the context of this article)
  • Common Custom Post Types added by plugins or themes:
    • Forms (like Gravity Forms)
    • Events
    • Products
    • Quotes
    • Sliders
    • Portfolio items
    • FAQs

tagsUsed to structure and relate CPT data

Used to display CPT data

  • “Archive” (an index or overview page that commonly shows 10 recent posts at a time. for a simple blog this is the homepage. But every taxonomy term will have an archive page and WordPress also builds archives pages by date.
  • “Permalink” or “single”: shows one post
Posted in WordPress | 1 Response

PressThis 2.0 › WordPress 4.2 “Powell”

By Ari Salomon | Published: April 23, 2015

Really excited about the new “Press This” in WordPress 4.2 – just released today. Here’s how it look (and a “meta” screenshot of me making this post).

press this wordpress 4.2

But I found a bug already – dragging an image into the browser uploads to media library but “add to post” button doesn’t actually add it to the post. This was always an issue with the older PressThis – it opened up the ease of adding images to media library from an external web page but would not allow adding images directly to media library/this post. Well there is also the nice new “undo” button….

Screen Shot 2015-04-23 at 3.37.56 PM

 

 

You can now also save PressThis as an “app” using the “Add to Home Screen” button on an iPhone. then you enter a URL to “scan” for content. It works and is a great shortcut but I found it only grabbed images – not the page title. And of course you can’t preselect text from the source web page to start your post – that’s a great feature of the full PressThis bookmarklet.

The first part of the intro video is all about PressThis:

[wpvideo e9kH4FzP]

Source: WordPress › WordPress 4.2 “Powell”

Posted in Web Design, WordPress | Comments closed

Scam alert – web designers targeted – hearing impaired wants agroamerica site

By Ari Salomon | Published: March 25, 2015

First read the Forum post here: http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/forum/graphic-design/general/1584508-scam-alert

  • Ultimately, he wanted to send me the amount of the project plus an additional $2700 which I was then to pay his content manager.
  • Post any online classified ad and you’ll get a bunch of quick replies from people “interested in your item” they all use this we’ll send you extra money ploy. The check is always counterfeit.

Here’s the 2 exchanges I had recently…. luckily that second one tipped me off that the first one was a scam. I didn’t waste time sending them a proposal.

Begin forwarded message:
From: Jennifer Wooldridge j.wooldridge@outlook.com
Subject: RE: Web Design Service Ca!!!
Date: March 2, 2015 at 8:29:36 PM PST

Thanks for your swift response and i have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now it located in CA and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me ?. so i need you to check out this site but i need something more perfect than this if its possible .http://www.agroamerica.com <http://www.agroamerica.com/>…. the site would only be informational, so i need you to give me an estimate based on the site i gave you to check out, the estimate should include hosting and i want the same page as the site i gave you to check out and i have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site.

Note:
1. I want the same number of pages with the example site i gave you to check excluding videos and blogs.
2. I want only English language
3. I want the domain name as Finestplantationproduce.com <http://finestplantationproduce.com/>
4. you will be updating the site for me.
5. i will be proving the images, logos and content for the site.
6. i want the site up and running before ending of next month.
7. My budget is $4000 to $8000

Kindly get back to me with:
(1) an estimate
(2) your cell phone number
(3) And will like to know if you are the owner ??

Jennifer

email thread started with:
Am Wooldridge i am an hearing impaired.i wanna know if you can handle website design for a new company and also if you do you accept credit cards ??

 

Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:36:32 -0700
From: Terrance Spencer <terrancespencer01@outlook.com>
subject line: web designer needed
Thanks for your swift response, here is the job details

l have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now it located in NV and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa, so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me ?.
I need you to check out this site but i need something more perfect than this if its possible .http://www.agroamerica.com…. the site would only be informational, so i need you to give me an estimate based on the site i gave you to check out, the estimate should include hosting and i want the same page as the site i gave you to check out. I have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site.

Note:
1. I want the same number of pages with the example site i gave you to check excluding videos and blogs.
2. I want only English language
3. I don’t have a domain yet but i want the domain name as qualityfarmzproduct.com
4. you will be maintaining and updating the site for me.
5. i will be providing the images, logos and content for the site.
6. i want the site up and running before ending of next month.
7. My budget is $3000 to 6000

Kindly get back to me with:
(1) an estimate
(2) your cell phone number
(3) And will like to know if you are the owner ??

 

Original message:
Good Day,
Am Terrance Spencer I am an hearing impaired. I wanna know if you can handle website design for a new company and also if you do you accept credit cards kindly get back to me with you requested to my email address terrancespencer01@outlook.com so I can send you the job details. I will be be expecting your responds, Thanks.

 

here’s another one:

From: Calton Ball <caltonball500@gmail.com>
Subject: WEB DESIGNER NEEDED ASAP
Date: August 5, 2015 at 6:34:56 AM PDT

Good DAY!

I’m hearing impaired i need to know if you can handle website design for a new company and i also need to know if you accept credit cards as form of payment?

Regards,

Carlton Ball

 
 


 
 
 
Posted in Web Design | 226 Responses

Safari 7.1.4 Where is “Empty Cache”

By Ari Salomon | Published: March 24, 2015

Speaking of food metaphors…. an Apple moved the cheese.

Trying to clear cache in Safari 7.1.4? It’s no longer under the “Safari” menu.

Here’s how to clear the cache in the new Safari. Select “Preferences” from the Safari Menu and then follow these steps…

  1. Select the “Advanced” tab and check the “Show Develop menu in menu bar” boxsafari 7 1 4 settings
  2. Note the “Develop” Menu. Select “Empty Caches” from the Develop Menu.safari develop menu

 

The keyboard shortcut didn’t change but this hardly seems a step forward IMHO.

Posted in Product Reviews | Leave a comment

Fake reviews at Yelp, Amazon Books – authenticity engine details

By Ari Salomon | Published: January 26, 2015

An interesting new report from PBS NewsHour about fake reviews on Yelp and Bazaarvoice:

They don’t mention the services that sell Facebook friends and other social media followers but that’s in the same dishonest ball park.

Reminds me of Amazon’s decision to delete thousands of book reviews that generated an uproar — the company never offered a public explanation for the sweeping purge back in 2013.

 

Giving raves to family members is no longer acceptable. Neither is writers’ reviewing other writers. But showering five stars on a book you admittedly have not read is fine.

…
Amazon has not said how many reviews it has killed, nor has it offered any public explanation. So its sweeping but hazy purge has generated an uproar about what it means to review in an era when everyone is an author and everyone is a reviewer.

Is a review merely a gesture of enthusiasm or should it be held to a higher standard? Should writers be allowed to pass judgment on peers the way they have always done offline or are they competitors whose reviews should be banned? Does a groundswell of raves for a new book mean anything if the author is soliciting the comments?

via Amazon Book Reviews Deleted in a Purge Aimed at Manipulation – NYTimes.com.

Posted in Product Reviews | Tagged | Leave a comment

Notes from WooConf 2014

By Ari Salomon | Published: November 22, 2014

wooconf-ariWooConf was full of interesting talks and it was great to meet up with Woo-enthusiasts… I liked that part of the presentations were technical and part were marketing driven – my goal is to help my small business ecommerce clients understand how to use marketing tools to optimize the performance of the websites I build for them. I’m not primarily a marketing guy so some of this is new territory for me.

SAAS Marketing Tools

  • GraphFlow: recommendation engine
  • Improvely: Conversion Tracking & Click Fraud Monitoring
  • Vero – Track behaviors and trigger all kinds of email autoresponders
  • Raven: online marketing reports – integrate all kinds of reports in one place
  • SharpSpring: marketing automation

Other tools

  • Elto marketplace for Woo and other dev tasks like site speed
  • Measure site speed with GTmetrix
  • Tip: Sliders are not good for conversion rates
  • Plugin to sort products in many ways — maybe useful if you have lots of products

Notes on talks

chris-lema-wooconf

Chris Lema

 

 

 

 

Posted in Web Design, WordPress WooCommerce | Leave a comment

Creative WordPress Archive Pages – Posts in Grids

By Ari Salomon | Published: October 16, 2014
Screen Shot 2014-10-16 at 12.01.49 PM

“Snazzy” Archives at thinkimagine.com

I use “Snazzy” Archives (wp.org page) and you can view mine but it is more interesting when you go back in time to view months where I have more posts. It has not been updated in a while but it still works great.

Another great option is the JetPack Infinite Scroll + Masonry and some detailed notes on making a responsive Pinterest-like Grid of posts.

Dynamic Grid: WordPress Posts Feed Slider

Dynamic Grid: WordPress Posts Feed Slider

This plugin offers an animation option to the grid of posts

  • I also found a Query Posts plugin that spits out fairly raw content for you to style with CSS
  • Reviews of a few post grid plugins
  • Grid Layout Shock offers free and paid version of it’s post grid plugin
  • Also minimal listing of months/years can be useful too if you don’t want a big preview image
Posted in Web Design, WordPress | Leave a comment
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