CrazyWebFoo Design Blog » Content Management System

WordPress 3.0: Menu Managment

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:59:54 +0000

WordPress 3.0 brings a cool new feature to the plate: Menu Management. Now, from within the WordPress Dashboard, administrators can create dynamic menus with images. This removes some of the burden from web designers and allows WordPress clients a certain level of autonomy while managing their blog.

Click on the image above to see an example. To add an image to a menu item just specify a class. Then, from your css file, you can include the background image. Voila!

CrazyWebFoo Design: WordPress Template

Steve — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:00:45 +0000

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of creating a completely original WordPress theme design for months now. So, after consulting quite a few resources on the matter, I’ve begun designing the new prototype. Here’s an image of the current Photoshop design.

Revision #1

Add Rich Multimedia to Your Website

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:50:45 +0000

I’ve been approached by several clients recently who were in need of video capabilities on their respective websites. This is a great idea in terms of sales and marketing! Of course, not everyone is going to need video on their website, but if you do here are two options.

Option #1 would be to embed video manually (and moderately) on your existing site(s). Option #2 would be to install a full blown content management system (CMS) with the components necessary to own and operate your own YouTube style website. There are other factors involved too, such as your hosting provider’s server capabilities and settings, site management, marketing, and promotion.

The easiest way to accomplish your video needs is to simply embed them onto your existing website. This can be accomplished in many different ways (e.g. ) but essentially you will need to make sure your site can playback the video. Adobe Flash offers the ability to easily embed your existing movies into playable files once uploaded to your server. Most reputable web design companies will have that (or similar) software to help you with your conversion and code needs.

The previous solution is fine if you want to embed the occasional movie onto some static web pages. However, if you really want to gain a cult following, you’re going to want to go with option #2. This will allow you to do the most important thing you can for your site: produce regular content. Why? First, search engines love quality content! The more meaningful content you have online the higher up you will travel in the Google search rankings. Let that sink in. There’s more to it than that, but essentially, this tip is provided via Google’ Webmsater Tools Help page (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/). Second, you will become to foster a sense of community as your site gains members or subscribers. This will allow you at a later point to leverage your site for profitable means, be it eCommerce, affiliate advertising, etc.

So there’s my $0.02 on adding rich multimedia to your website. Contact me or leave a comment below if you’d like to learn more adding flash animations, video, and photos to your site. We like to help!

Acajoom: eNewsletter Product (by Joobi)

Steve — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:20:30 +0000

A big part of marketing is reaching out to your existing customers. One of the most effective ways to stay on the minds of your community members is through an eNewsletter. You control the publishing frequency and content while the system manages the technical email aspects.

We use Acajoom , a product by Joobi, to manage our marketing efforts. Their company motto, “simple.smart.secure.” Acajoom PRO takes the concept of a newsletter and email marketing one step further. Efficient and agile, Acajoom empowers Joomla sites to create strong lifetime customer relationships.

Here are some of the key features:

* Newsletters
* Smart newsletters
* Auto-responders / follow-up emails
* Statistics

Let CrazyWebFoo Design help you with your business or community website marketing goals. We offer free consulations (physically or virtually) to discuss your ideas. Just visit the Contact Us page.

hwdVideoShare

Steve — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:19:24 +0000

hwdVideoShare is a phenomenal video sharing component for the Joomla CMS. It is designed by Highwood Design. Trust me when I tell you that no detail was overlooked during the creation of this software suite.

I first heard about the hwdMediaShare Software Suite from the Joomla Extensions Directory. I had originally installed and configured another non-commercial video component for a community R/C website (Fly R/C Online). After many programming hours and headaches to boot, I decided it was time to make a change. hwdVideoShare had received rave reviews. I decided to make the investment in their software. It was then that I purchased an annual subscription to their download libraries. It’s one of my wiser web design moves.

Are you looking for a rock-solid Joomla based video sharing component? Look no further than the guys over at Highwood Design. You won’t be disappointed.

Logo: Fly R/C Online

Steve — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:32:41 +0000

Introducing the brand new logo for Fly R/C Online (http://flyrconline.com)! We designed, created, and optimized this logo exclusively for the site owners. We were also asked to create the site header image (see below).

Fly R/C Online logo

Fly R/C Online header image

Thank you to Fly R/C Online for their support! Do you need a logo design? Leave us a comment below.

Fly R/C Online

Steve — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:51:27 +0000

Fly R/C Online is a media sharing community for R/C pilots. The site was designed for members to share videos and photos of R/C (radio control) airplanes, helicopters, and more. On a personal level I enjoy sharing the hobby I’ve grown to love over the years. As a web designer, I viewed the site as a design challenge and a great addition to the CrazyWebFoo portfolio.

Fly R/C Online

I used my passion for R/C as motivation to learn, design, and develop a complex, media sharing site. While there are many R/C related sites out there on the internet, most of the sites are allow members to communicate via forums. This is great for information sharing. However, I wanted a community site that revolved around videos.

I realized that Fly R/C Online would need a robust Content Management System (CMS) to handle the video sharing demands. I researched the different CMS options available, and after some experimenting, decided to use the open-source Joomla CMS. Joomla has a wide variety extensions, developers, and documentation. These things are very important when trying to decide which system is right for you. It’s better to spend a lot of time researching up front to avoid costly mistakes later in the development life cycle.

I needed to research components after choosing the CMS platform. The site had to have strong community and video components. I wanted members to be able to login, communicate, and upload their videos. I researched and tested various components before selecting two that fit within my design specifications and budget.

Fly R/C Online is the first CMS system built here at the Foo. I created a site that shared two of my favorite passions; web design and R/C flying. If you’d like to create your own video sharing site, or a site that revolves around some other dynamic content, you’d do well to consider Joomla as your open-source CMS.