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Using Simple Social Icons with W3 Total Cache

January 9, 2017 by Michele Leave a Comment

In a previous post, W3 Total Cache Garbled My Simple Social Icons, I explained how to prevent your icons from being garbled by adding the Simple Social Icons style sheet to the list of style sheets that never get minified.

Simple social icon problem with W3 Total Cache CDN This image on the left is the result after upgrading the Simple Social Icons plugin to the latest version. This issue was caused because Simple Social Icons now uses scalable vector graphics (SVGs) instead of web fonts for better accessibility and legibility and the W3 Total Cache plugin did not upload the new SVG files to my CDN. No worries, it can be done manually.

To correct the problem so that the Simple Social Icons render correctly with W3 Total Cache follow these steps:

  1. Login to your WordPress Admin panel.
  2. Mouse over the Performance menu item and select CDN.
  3. W3 Total Cache CDN Purge button Look for the Purge button as pictured to the left and tap/click it.
  4. Enter the path and object names for all the SVG files associated with the Simple Social Icons plugin. You can see my list below.
  5. Press the Purge button. The files on your CDN will be deleted and refreshed with the files from your server.
  6. Refresh the page and you should see the icons rendered properly.

Simple Social Icons rendered properly after W3 Total Cache CDN purged.

 

wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/behance.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/bloglovin.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/dribbble.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/email.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/facebook.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/flickr.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/github.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/gplus.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/instagram.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/linkedin.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/medium.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/periscope.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/phone.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/pinterest.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/rss.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/snapchat.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/stumbleupon.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/tumblr.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/twitter.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/vimeo.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/xing.svg
wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/icons/SVG/youtube.svg

Filed Under: How To

Why I Use StudioPress’s Genesis Framework and Themes For WordPress Sites

March 14, 2015 by Michele Leave a Comment

When I first started building sites using WordPress, I downloaded a few different themes and took pieces from each to build the sites my clients wanted. Each theme had its own peculiar way of implementing things and, of course, with each new theme used I spent precious time learning that particular theme developer implemented their features.

In the summer of 2012, I learned about StudioPress. I read their blog and searched for sites that were using their themes. I was impressed with the diversity of the sites built with the StudioPress Framework.

I purchased the framework within the next few months and have been very happy. The support forum is moderated very well providing answers to questions about particular themes and advise on how to implement your own features. I found the third party developer community is quite active and, therefore, I am able to find plugins coded specifically for the StudioPress Framework to bring advanced functionality to my sites.

Primary Features To Consider

  • Ease Of Use - StudioPress provides full instructions on how to configure any one of their themes to look exactly as the theme is demonstrated on their website.
  • Developers Are Not Required - The framework and theme can easily be uploaded to your site via the WordPress Admin Dashboard. When a new release of the framework or theme is published, you will be notified via the dashboard and updating the framework and theme is as easy as clicking the Update button.
  • Responsive Design - If you want your visitors and customers to be able to access and read your site using a smartphone, tablet or desktop, you want your site to be responsive. StudioPress themes are responsive right out of the box. No additional configuration necessary.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Afraid of all those SEO plugins available for WordPress? No worries, the StudioPress themes are fully optimized and they support the Schema.org code, which allows you to output microdata in your site’s code. This enhances your site’s search engine optimization even further. Click here to read more about the Schema.org code.
  • Unlimited Use - There are many theme developers that sell you a theme and restrict its use to just one site requiring you to make multiple purchases for each site you would like to install it on. Not with StudioPress, purchase the theme and framework and you can install it on as many sites as you require. How cool is that!
  • Developers Can Be Helpful - While you can install the Genesis Framework and child theme without needing a developer, should you have a very customized site in mind by all means contact us and let us know what you have in mind.
This list is just a brief list of the Genesis Features. Click here for a complete list of Genesis Framework features. Also, take a look at the Showcase of Sites where you will see what some people have done with their site design projects.

A Few Theme Examples

  • Wellness Pro Theme

    $99.95
    Learn More
  • Hello! Pro Theme

    $99.95
    Learn More
  • Simply Pro Theme

    $99.95
    Learn More
  • Pro Plus All-Theme Package

    $499.95
    Learn More
  • AgentPress Pro Theme

    $99.95
    Learn More
  • News Pro Theme

    $99.95
    Learn More
View More Themes
Do yourself a favor and take a look at the StudioPress Genesis Framework – there’s a good reason why many of the Internet Notables are using StudioPress.
  • Yoast (https://yoast.com/)
  • Jay Baer – Convince and Convert (http://www.convinceandconvert.com/)
  • ProBlogger (http://problogger.com)

FREE Genesis Guide for Absolute Beginners

If you are worried that the Genesis Framework is too advanced for you, go ahead and click on the image to the right to download your FREE Genesis Guide for Absolute Beginners. After reading it, you’ll see just how easy it is to install and configure a Genesis Theme.
Click to download the Genesis Guide for Absolute Beginners

Filed Under: Themes, Wordpress

Infusionsoft: Redirecting After Submitting Web Form Version 2

March 7, 2015 by Michele Leave a Comment

I was asked today how could I route users to different pages using the value of a dropdown list and thought my original version of the routing function would work perfectly but it did not. It required a little tweaking but here you go…

Infusionsoft Web Form

For my example, I created another simple Web Form at https://fr381.infusionsoft.com/app/form/interests1. I set the Thank You page for this form as a Web Address -> http://clients.equalserving.com/loreen/infusionsoft-router-v2/

Shortcode Verion 2

Version 2 of the shortcode –

[esifs_router_v1 field_name="inf_custom_BlogInterests" pages = '{"Digital Downloads":"https://www.equalserving.com/category/digital-downloads/","Infusionsoft":"https://www.equalserving.com/category/infusionsoft/","How Tos":"https://www.equalserving.com/category/how-to/"}']

Where the field_name (inf_custom_BlogInterests) that I want to interrogate is named and the values of the choices (Digital Downloads, Infusionsoft, How Tos) and the pages I want visitors redirected to follow in the variable pages.

SelectRedirect to Page
Digital Downloadshttps://www.equalserving.com/category/digital-downloads/
Infusionsofthttps://www.equalserving.com/category/infusionsoft/
How Toshttps://www.equalserving.com/category/how-to/

If you take a peek at the source code of my web form, you will notice that each of the items in the dropdown has the values that you entered in the field in the Infusionsoft web form builder.

<div class="infusion-field"> 
   <label for="inf_custom_BlogInterests">Blog Interests *</label> 
   <select id="inf_custom_BlogInterests" name="inf_custom_BlogInterests">
      <option value="">Please select one</option>
      <option value="Digital Downloads">Digital Downloads</option>
      <option value="Infusionsoft">Infusionsoft</option>
      <option value="How Tos">How Tos</option>
   </select> 
</div> 

To enable the use of such a shortcode requires that I add a function to my WordPress theme’s function.php file. I’ll explain what the following code does line by line below.

add_shortcode('esifs_router_v2', 'esifs_router_v2_function');
 
function esifs_router_v2_function($atts, $content = null){
    //* What is the IFS field name we are concerned with that predicts the routing
    if ((isset($atts["field_name"]) && $atts["field_name"] != "") && (isset($atts["pages"]) && $atts["pages"] != "")) {
        //* Convert the pages to a proper array
        $pages = json_decode( $atts["pages"], true );
        if( !is_array( $pages ) or count( $pages )<1 ) $pages = array();

        //* Get the value of the IFS field
        $field_name = $atts["field_name"];

        //* Make sure there is a value
        if (isset($_GET[$field_name]) && $_GET[$field_name] != "") {
            $value = $_GET[$field_name];
            $url = $pages[$value];
            if ($url != "") {
                $string .= '<script type="text/javascript">';
                $string .= 'window.location = "' . $url . '"';
                $string .= '</script>';
                echo $string;
            } else {
                echo "<p>No value found.</p>";
            }
        }
    }
}
  • Line 1: Associates the shortcode [esifs_router_v2] with the function esifs_router_v2_function. WordPress now knows that when it sees the shortcode [esifs_router_v2] in a page or post, it will call the esifs_router_v2_function. For more on WordPress shortcodes, you can read Smashing Magazines guide on shortcodes.
  • Line 3: passes the attributes from the shortcode to the function esifs_router_v2_function.
  • Line 5: checks to ensure that the field name is set in the shortcode and not empty.
  • Line 7 – 8: converts the details of the pages parameter into an array to use in the rest of the code.
  • Line 11: tells the function what field name I want to check for redirection. In my case, it is the field name inf_option_MyInterest.
  • Line 14: checks to ensure that the field name is being passed to the page by Infusionsoft and that the value is not empty.
  • Lines 15: assign the value of the option the visitor selected to the variable $value.
  • Lines 16: assigns the appropriate URL to the variable $url.
  • Lines 18 – 21: Will output a small piece of Javascript to the page that will redirect the visitor to the page you defined in the shortcode.
  • Lines 22 – 23: If a URL is not found in the array, it will output a message without the JavaScript code to redirect.

To finish this post I wanted to show you how to change the shortcode from my original example so that I could use the new version of the shortcode.

The new shorcode would look like –

[esifs_router_v2 field_name="inf_option_MyInterest" pages='{"213":"http://clients.equalserving.com/loreen/infusionsoft-router/213-kayaking", "215":"http://clients.equalserving.com/loreen/infusionsoft-router/215-biking", "217":"http://clients.equalserving.com/loreen/infusionsoft-router/217-hiking"}']

Filed Under: How To, Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft: Need a Forward To A Friend Link In Your Emails

September 18, 2014 by Michele Leave a Comment

Problem

An exasperated dumbfounded client contacted me today. He was frustrated by the fact that while Infusionsoft allows sharing of email content via their social sharing widget that includes Facebook, Twitter and Google+, they do not include a simple “forward to a friend.” The “forward to a friend” feature is included in many email services – ActiveCampaign, MailChimp and iContact to name a few.

Goal

Our goal is to have the “Forward to a friend” link blend with the other social icons as shown below:

Infusionsoft adding a forward to friend icon to email

How

With a little tinkering I came up with an approach that I think fits in nicely with the rest of the Infusionsoft email design elements. To accomplish the task insert an HTML Snippet into the email just above the Social Snippet as pictured below.

Infusionsoft inside the email editor

In the HTML Snippet copy and paste the HTML code below into your HTML Snippet:


<p style="text-align:center;wdth:100px;float:right;">
<a href="mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20~Company.Company~&body=Hi!%0DI%20was%20reading%20the%20~Company.Company~%20Newsletter%20and%20thought%20you'd%20like%20it.%20Check%20it%20out%20at%20-%0D%20~HostedEmail.Url~.">
<img src="https://db.tt/sIe7bF7e" border="0" align="center" alt="email icon" />
</a>
</p>

The above code will render the email image to the right of the social share icons as shown in the image at the top of this post.

When the contact clicks on the email icon, it will open their email client with a new email with –
Subject: Check out ~Company.Company~
Body: Hi!
I was reading the ~Company.Company~ Newsletter and thought you’d like it. Check it out at –
~HostedEmail.Url~.

~Company.Company~ will be replaced with your company’s name and ~HostedEmail.Url~ will be replaced with the link to your hosted email.

Notice in Line 3 of the code above, we are using our own image file that is stored on Dropbox. If you prefer to download the email image [ email icon ] or use one of your own, make sure that you change the URL https://db.tt/sIe7bF7e to the proper URL of your image file. To download ours right click on the email image above and select Save Image As to save the image to your hard drive.

I hope this is helpful to others using Infusionsoft who would like to include a simple “Forward to Friend” link in their email marketing.

Filed Under: Infusionsoft

Crafting a Return Policy

July 14, 2014 by Michele Leave a Comment

satisfaction guarantee return policyWhile the internet makes opening an online store easier than a bricks and mortar store, customers are not able to see, feel and hold virtual products the way they do items in a store on Main Street. Therefore, returns will be inevitable because for one reason or another one of your customers expected something different than what was explained in the description or provided in the product photos.

Make returns easy for your customer and your staff by documenting, very simply, under what conditions you will accept a return and what steps the customer must take to get their merchandise returned.

Easy To Find

First and foremost, your return policy must be easy to find. Don’t hide this important information in the footer. Provide a link to your return policy in each product detail page – displayed prominently near the call to action – “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button.

Make It Simple

Have you ever shopped at LL Bean? They will accept returns of any product they have ever sold you, no matter what condition or how old. If you’re not happy with your purchase from LL Bean, they will accept the return and either replace the item or refund your money. Their return policy is plain and simple. Of course, not every online store can provide that kind of policy but you can clearly list the steps (the fewer the better) the customer needs to take and conditions (also, the fewer the better) in which you will accept their product return.

When Zappos introduced their website and business, they knew they faced stiff competition from major department stores. They knew that customers liked and needed to try on many shoe styles and sizes before they made a purchase. Therefore, they needed to provide free shipping and free returns. Without that policy they didn’t stand a chance at success.

The folks at Sock Addict provide a simple return policy. If the product is in original packaging they will accept a return 180 days after purchase – during the first 60 days, you will get a 100% refund and during day 61 through day 180, you will get store credit.

But not all online stores can afford free shipping on returns like Zappos and you might be one of those businesses like Sock Addict that will accept a return but the customer must pay the shipping costs. If you, like the majority of online businesses, require your customers pay for the return shipping, make sure that stipulation is plainly stated in your return policy page.

Examples of Return Policies that work for the customer and business:

Zappos – https://www.zappos.com/shipping-and-returns

Abe’s Market – http://www.abesmarket.com/faq#topic=returns

Sock Addict – https://www.socksaddict.com/ReturnPolicy.aspx

Joby – My dealings with Joby’s customer support have been nothing but outstanding. Joby stands by their products and their shipping methods. https://joby.com/support#return_policy

Other Resources

Amazon’s Return Policy

BigCommerce.com :: How to Write a Profitable Returns Policy

Shopify: 9 Tips on Creating an Ecommerce Return Policy

Entrepreneur.com :: Don’t Make These Return Policy Mistakes

Filed Under: 1shoppingcart.com, eCommerce

What are your shipping fees?

July 10, 2014 by Michele Leave a Comment

Have you given the proper thought to calculate your shipping fees?

#484084489 / gettyimages.com

Too many online businesses lose money every time they ship an order to a customer. This is because shipping fees are an afterthought. Please don’t make the same mistake.

You have given careful consideration to the pricing of your products. Take the same time to carefully consider what is involved in the shipping of your products. Think about the time it takes to prepare the product for shipping, the packaging you will use to ship the product, the time to get the product to your shipping courier and of course, the actual cost your shipping courier charges you to ship your product.

Shipping Fee Calculation




Free Shipping or Free Shipping on Orders of Some Minimum Amount

Can you offer free shipping or discounted shipping once the total purchase reaches a minimum amount? With your shipping costs calculated, does it make sense to increase the price of your products to absorb some or all of those costs and allow you to offer free shipping. Remember – free shipping may be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.

Richard Lazazzera at Shopify has written a terrific article on the topic of shipping and fulfillment that I encourage you to read before publishing your shipping fees

 

Filed Under: 1shoppingcart.com, eCommerce

WordPress Media Shortcode Explained

May 2, 2014 by Michele Leave a Comment

Inserting images in your posts or pages is quite easy in WordPress using the Add Media button. This post is meant to explain how the WordPress media shortcode is populated with the information from your media library.

Take a look at the image below. The body of the post as shown in the Text Editor is on the left side and the image (attachment) details is on the right side. I color coded the media gallery fields with their corresponding placement in the media ( [caption ] ) shortcode.

Explanation of WordPress Media Shortcode
How to read a media shortcode in WordPress.
  1. Title (red) – used in the anchor tag (< a href=”…) and again later in the image tag (< img src=”…). The text you enter in the Title field is used to name the image file. Avoid using titles like image1 or photo2 instead follow Google’s SEO Best Practices and use more descriptive names as I did in this example – “Bee in Wisteria.”
  2. Caption (blue) – used as the actual caption of the image
  3. Alt text (yellow) – used as the alt attribute of the image tag. This text will appear if for some reason the image is unable to download to the visitor’s browser. Again, use brief but descriptive terms.
  4. Alignment (orange) – used in the caption tag ([ caption ] ) is used to designate how the image will be aligned on the page with regard to the text that surrounds it. In this particular case the image will appear to the right of any text on the page.
  5. Link To (green) – this option is used if and only if you want the image to be a hyperlink, i.e. your site visitor can click on the image to bring them elsewhere. If you do not want the image to be a hyperlink, select None from the drop down list box. Your link to options are as follows:
    • Media File – when the visitor clicks on a link to the Media File, the full size image will appear within the browser.
    • Attachment Page – when the visitor clicks on a link to the Attachment Page, the image will display similar to how a post would appear on the site with a title, image and description.
    • Custom URL – if you would like your image to link to another page on our site or anywhere else on the internet, select this option and enter the URL. Your site visitor will be brought to that page when they click on the image.
    • None – choose this option, if you would like to embed the image without a hyperlink.
  6. Size (purple/pink) – select the size of the image you would like embedded in the page.

The shortcode used in the illustration above would be rendered on the page as shown below. Notice the 200px x 300px image is aligned to the right of the text with a caption beneath. Click on the image to display the media file.

Example of Media Shortcode Rendered on a Post.
Example of Media Shortcode Rendered on a Post.

If you would like to see how the different linking methods work, please go to this media shortcode demonstration page.

I mentioned Google’s SEO best practices in this article. If you would like to read the entire document, you can find Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide Here.

Filed Under: Wordpress, Wordpress Explained

What the Heck is MsoNormalTable? And How Did it Get in my Post?

March 17, 2014 by Michele Leave a Comment

Have you ever created a post or page in WordPress and found the following weird code staring at you?

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><br />
<w:WordDocument><br />
<w:View>Normal</w:View><br />
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom><br />
<w:PunctuationKerning/><br />
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/><br />
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid><br />
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent><br />
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText><br />
<w:Compatibility><br />
<w:BreakWrappedTables/><br />
<w:SnapToGridInCell/><br />
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/><br />
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/><br />
<w:DontGrowAutofit/><br />
</w:Compatibility><br />
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><br />
</w:WordDocument><br />
</xml><![endif]--></p>
<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><br />
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"><br />
</w:LatentStyles><br />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]></p>
<style>
 /* Style Definitions */</p>
</style>
<p><![endif]--></p>

Yeah? Chances are you copied the content straight from Word and pasted it right into the WordPress editor. To prevent this from happening in the future use the Paste From Word feature as pictured below.

PasteFromWord

Using the Paste From Word feature strips out the Word formatting commands from your WordPress page or post.

  1. Copy your content from Word
  2. Click on the Paste From Word icon
  3. Paste your content from Word into the provided space
  4. Click on the Insert button

In the event that you do not see the Paste From Word icon in your editor, click on the Show/Hide Kitchen Sink icon . This will reveal a second row of editing icons/features.

For more information about the Paste From Word feature in wordpress, please see the WordPress Support page.

Filed Under: How To, Wordpress

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