WordPress Multisite

Here’s the story – a client wants to have different color schemes for different part of their website but the over all look and feel should not deviate between sites AND they would like to have users broken down into individual groups depending on which section they belong to and then they’d also like to be able to communicate privately between trainers, coaches and clients.

So I go to thinking about this and it seems to me the easiest way to achieve this is to use a theme framework that can be deployed on a multisite network.

Flex Squeeze supports multisites so we went with that for the framework (it has the added bonus of being one of the more visually appealing squeeze page frameworks).

Having setup a couple of sites using the built in network – the first one was http://www.life-coaching-101.com/wordpress/ that was developed to provide practical experience for students in my Website BootCamp class @ CTA.  It’s a basic setup/config just like any other site so doing additional networks is a joke.

Flex Squeeze just needs to be licensed for each new site in the newer network and then I can roll out new color variations by simple replacing one color code for another and uploading that layout right into the template – talk about rapid site development!

As next steps – I’ve starting futzing around with BuddyPress and will be modifying that to scale down it’s community functionality as we only need it for communication between staff and clients, they don’t need to talk to each other…

More on that when I get a bit deeper into it but at an early glance it should fit the bill for what the goals are

Event Espresso + Worpdress

 = Event Registration Made Easy

Event Espresso is billed as the premiere event registration and management plugin for WordPress.

Today I installed and deployed it on a client site and I gotta say – I like this plugin a lot.

Here’s why -

• It’s FREE!
• Compatible with Paypal
• Emails Event Details to Registrant
• Events can be live OR virtual
• Events can be free or paid
• Attendee list is exportable
• Google Maps Integration
• Really easy to setup and use

From finding the plugin to deployment on a live website took all of about an hour with two events
(actually one event, two price points, one for vendors to buy space and one for participants)

Bottom line is two thumbs up from me!

Definitely going to use this plugin again.

*there is a paid upgrade that adds all sorts of payment gateway options, nifty ticket printing, etc…

Read more on their site: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration and Manager Plugin

Flexibility 3 Is Pretty Slick

I have written about Flexsqueeze here: http://wordpress.forlifecoaches.com/?p=156

As it turns out there is a free one too. Even though this one doesn’t have all the sales and squeeze page page elements that it’s big brother has – it does provide one of the best “choose your own options” wordpress frameworks I have yet to use and believe you me – I have tried more than my share of them!

Check it out:

Flexibility 3 is a FREE WordPress Theme!

Go ahead and download the theme, try it out and see how easy it is to create your own custom site. New users quickly discover how powerful the theme can be and you can quickly create a site unlike any other.

Like The Facebook Timeline?

WP Facebook Timeline

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-facebook-timeline-mf-timeline/

This timeline plugin creates a visual linear timeline representation from your WordPress posts and other media sources in the style of Facebook Profile Timeline.

Black Studio TinyMCE Widget FTW!

While updating a wordpress site for a client – one thing that kept cropping up was “How do I add or change content that is in a widget?”

The thing is you need to install a plugin like Black Studio TinyMCE Widget so you don’t have to type html into a widgeted area.

Search for it by name in the plugins database and try it!

It is useful for replacing text/html widgets – just make sure you copy the html code out of your existing widget BEFORE you disable it (though you could store it in the unused widget bin and it will save your settings, having them pasted into a text file is easy enough)

Pre Populating Fields in Limesurvey

Here’s the scenario – I am building an assessment using limesurvey but I want to collect the prospects name and email and put them on the general marketing list before they DO the assessment.

I also want to know who submitted the answers BUT I don’t want them to have to re type their name and email to DO the assessment (I want those fields to be filled in when they click the link in an email and I don’t want to mess around with anything complicated like an API or anything like that – I just want to make a customized link that will do all the work for me.

Since I know you can send variables in a url to limesurvey – this is the easiest means to an end…

http://docs.limesurvey.org/tiki-index.php?page=Workarounds%3A+Survey+behaviour&structure=English+Instructions+for+LimeSurvey#Prefilling_survey_answers_
using_the_survey_URL

http://docs.limesurvey.org/SGQA+identifier#Identifier_for_Single_Choice_Questions

The Survey ID -Survey Can You Build Your Own Website? (ID:72632)

Question group Contact (ID:13)

The ID for the questions I want to have answered when they click the link in the email”
Question Your Name (ID:152)
Question Your Email (ID:153)

The SGQA* Identifier for each part (sgqa sounds confusing but it’s really just the three ID’s for the questions I want to provide answers for laid out like this surveyIDXQuestionGroupXQuestionID

So if I add the following to the url of the assessment:
&72632X13X152=First_Name
&72632X13X153=email@address.com

I end up with this as the link for the email:

http://survey.spintheweb.com/start/index.php?sid=72632&72632X13X152=First_Name&72632X13X153=email@address.com

Now all I have to do is set up the email to include this. (this is trivial in any good email system)

If your mail platform doesn’t allow you to add a prospects first name and email address as variables – you need a better mail system…

Ultimate TinyMCE vs WP Super Edit

I gotta say – I like the Ultimate TinyMCE better than WP Super Edit!

They have the same functionality but the TinyMCE seems to work better. Sometimes the font selector wasn’t showing up on WP SE and sometimes it works fine – rather than try to figure out WHY it is easier just to change it out.

The configuration is more streamlined so it’s faster to pick and choose what you want to show. To me ANYTHING that makes a process faster is a better choice, time is money!

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Free Web Conferencing!

http://www.anymeeting.com  by far the most innovative web conferencing system in the world – it just keeps getting better and better. AND it’s FREE!

Now you can host up to 200 participants, share 6 screens and record everything.

They even store the video for you!

When you are getting ready to do your next webinar – definitely take http://www.anymeeting.com for a spin – you won’t be disappointed!

Extending The WordPress WYSIWYG Editor

Changing out the editor for “something better” is something I do with pretty much any new website I have ever built – no matter what platform it was on.  If there is a better editor than what comes with the system – I’d upgrade it.

WordPress is no exception and to meet the need for a more flexible “what you see is what you get” editor I am using WP Super Edit.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-edit/