How to Display a Random Testimonial or Post in WordPress

Posted on August 12, 2009

Set up a testimonials category — no need for a plugin.

There are a couple of plugins designed specifically for testimonials, but I didn’t want to use them; they use their own databases, and don’t keep with WordPress’ simplicity. If possible, the best way to work with WordPress is to use it’s built-in functionality.

I also wanted to have the testimonials as a category in WP, rather than as a separate plugin. This code will work for any type of category, not just a testimonial.

Here’s how to create a random post item in your sidebar: Continue reading →

Posted in Code | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Interspire Shopping Cart — Add a Brands Drop-Down Menu

Posted on August 6, 2009

Don’t use the Interspire Shopping Cart? Check it out; it rocks.

The Interspire Shopping Cart is a great tool, but it’s missing some stuff out of the box.

This is how the Panel looks in the 'Adventure' theme.

This is how the Panel looks in the 'Adventure' theme.

I am working on a shopping cart for a client, and wanted to incorporate a drop down menu of brand names using a standard <select> form. Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s not included in the Interspire cart.

The Interspire cart has few brand options out of the box:

  • The Brands tag cloud – using the SideBrandTagCloud.html Panel
  • Brands unordered list – using the SideShopByBrand.html or SideShopByBrandFull.html Panels

This tutorial will show you how to add a brands drop down menu in 5 steps.

Continue reading →

Posted in Interspire, Tutorial | Tagged , , , , | 39 Comments

Get Adjacent Images – More WordPress Functions

Posted on August 4, 2009

Get the adjacent photo, man.

WordPress, just get the adjacent image links. I’ll tell you what to do with them!

WordPress is normally great about providing functions that have a return and an echo version.  In WordPress, if a function has the prefix get_, then it does not echo (print it into the content), but rather returns the result so that it can be saved as a variable, like so:  $example = get_example();

There are some functions that only have echo capability, so I wanted to share my work-around with you all.

Updated image_link functions

  • adjacent_image_link() » get_adjacent_image_link()
  • previous_image_link() » get_previous_image_link()
  • next_image_link() » get_next_image_link()

Continue reading →

Posted in Code, WordPress | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Denver SEO Blog Hits 100,000 Visitors

Posted on July 30, 2009

SEODenver.com Hits 100,000 Visitors

I launched this blog in January 2008 – only 19 months ago. Since then, the blog has seen 100,000 visitors. I look forward to creating more posts that you find interesting.

Last year at this time:

  • The blog was averaging 18 readers per day. Now it averages 357.
  • The blog had 14,677 visitors. This month, we hit 100,000.

Most popular blog posts on SEO Denver Blog:

“Next year in Jerusalem Denver”, SEO Blog!

I’d love to see the blog continue to grow at this rate. That would mean that the site would hit:

  • 11,283 visitors per month, 376 visitors per day,  and 158,517 total visitors by next January
  • 14,313 visitors per month, 477 visitors per day,  and 253,436 total visitors by next July

For people who like statistics, this is the equation for the polynomial trendline. Check out the equation on Wolfram Alpha. My numbers may be off (I couldn’t stay awake in my 8am Statistics class in college!), but either way, I’m looking forward to checking in on the numbers in a year.  Thank you, readers!

Posted in Blogging, KWS | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Contact Form 7 Modules – A Plugin

Posted on July 24, 2009

Check out our Contact Form 7 Newsletter Plugin

Easily add Contact Form 7 form submissions to a newsletter list!  Check it out today.

Download the Contact Form 7 Modules plugin from WordPress.org

Add hidden fields to Contact Form 7

I love the Contact Form 7 plugin, and use it for many of my projects…but one thing it misses is the ability to add hidden fields. The Contact Form 7 Modules plugin adds hidden fields to Contact Form 7 in a way that will not break in future upgrades. It’s simple: install the plugin, then edit your form!

Add Every Form Field to Emails At Once

Contact Form 7 makes you copy and paste each of your form’s fields into the email message. This can take a while, and means that if you add a field in the future but forget to put it in your email, you won’t get sent that piece of information.

Now, with the All Fields Module (included in Contact Form 7 Modules plugin), you only need to add one tag to receive every submitted field: [all-fields]

Posted in Personal, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 56 Comments

WordPress Digg Shortcode Function – As Seen on WordPress.com

Posted on July 23, 2009

When moving from WordPress.com, my Digg shortcodes broke.

I wanted a simple way to transition my Digg chicklets to a WordPress.org installation.

Array

I created a function that does nothing special, except for reproducing the Digg shortcode functionality on WordPress.com. All you need to do is enter [digg=http://digg.com/path_to_story_on_digg], and it will create a Digg This chicklet for you. Here’s the code in action →

Continue reading →

Posted in Code, WordPress | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The SEO Denver Blog is Now Self-Hosted

Posted on July 22, 2009

SEO Denver Switching Servers

After a year of hosting the SEODenver.com website on WordPress.com servers, it’s time to finally move on.

WordPress hosting was a good way to get the SEO Denver Blog up quicky and without much forethought…but WordPress.com hosting was always temporary, and finally, the site has moved! Continue reading →

Posted in KWS | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Redirect a Website in ColdFusion – Add www. or Move to New Domain

Posted on July 21, 2009

ColdFusion, BabyRedirecting a website in ColdFusion (.CFM)

I have been working on a ColdFusion website, and I wanted to find a way to require ‘www.’ in the URL (to consolidate all pages on www. for SEO). I normally work with PHP and Apache servers, so I’m used to .htaccess. I knew there had to be a way.

Here’s a simple method of redirecting a whole website in ColdFusion:

<!-- If the site isn't www... -->
<cfif (CGI.SERVER_NAME NEQ "www.example.com")>
<!-- Save the URL (and $_GET variables too) as the string 'strUrl' -->
<cfset strUrl = CGI.script_name & "?" & CGI.query_string />
<!-- Use 301 for SEO-friendly redirects -->
<cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently">
<!-- Redirect to new website (this case, added www.) with strUrl added on -->
<cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.example.com#strUrl#">
</cfif>

Continue reading →

Posted in Tutorial, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mountain America Jerky Redesign Launched

Posted on July 10, 2009

Mountain America Jerky Redesign

Mountain America Jerky Before Redesign Mountain America Jerky - After Redesign

Mountain America Jerky - Before and After Redesign

I’m happy to announce that today the new Mountain America Jerky website launched. Check out the site and try some of their crazy-good Garlic Black Pepper Beef Jerky. One perk of working with a nice client who sells beef jerky is getting samples of the product! Seriously, though, it’s the best jerky I’ve ever had.

I started working with Mountain America Jerky as a SEO. Jerky is a competitive field, and they wanted to improve their ranking. After working with Chuck on the website’s optimization, he told me he wanted to go big and rebrand the site. The result is a rustic, functional, beautiful website. Continue reading →

Posted in Code, Web Design Portfolio | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments