Building Apps for mobile devices becomes crucial for online success as an increasing number of web users shift to mobile devices and as the usage stats of mobile users has already passed web usage by desktop and lap-top users in many countries.

The Ycademy May Seminar will focus on App Building namely on:

Two days are a short time to become familiar with programming language and developer kits. For this reason we will be using what we believe are the two most powerful App building software packs available for Windows to build and test our Apps.

Participants can test also some of the apps directly on their mobile device.

The seminar will take place on May 26 –27, 2012 from 1 p.m. till 9 p.m. London Time on each day.

Seminar tickets are available with the usual discounts; get your discount code from bianca(at)ycademy.com.

More details during our calls and mails from Bianca.

Click to Get your Ticket

Related posts: Ycademy Online Seminar January 2012 Ycademy Online Seminar Apri 2012 Ycademy Online Seminar December 12–13, 2009 Ycademy Online Seminar March 2011 Ycademy Online Seminar May 2011

Once you know how to instal fonts on CS5 on 64bit it’s real easy!

As I had saved all my professional fonts in a folder that I had imported into a font folder on my new system, all I need to do is find the ttf file (standing for true type font) or the otf file (standing for open type font), right-click and ‘instal’.

That’s it! Go check the fonts on your Photoshop… and if it’s open, you may have to close it first and reopen it. All will be there and ready for you to use and design great stuff!

And to answer the question of where the fonts actually go now, it’s under “Appearance & Personalization” in the Control Panel. Normally, you download fonts as a zip file that you want to unzip and then navigate to the files as per above.

Where do you find many great fonts for free download?

Simply go to dafont.com and select what you like.

Once you work really professionally with fonts and especially if you prepare material for printing – say for a customer -, consider to select and buy a good font. While it may be costly in the beginning, it will pay off over time and simply gives you the professional look.

Remember: even on the internet you get what you pay for.

Having set up our basic Child Theme structure we will now proceed with the customization. But before that we will do some basic WP configuration and go through the settings. You may be used to building WordPress based sites and therefore you may have some habits in as much as settings and configuration are concerned.

Semiomantics XO Custom Magazine for WordPress

Here is what I do in the dashboard:

1. Trash and permanently delete the Hello World Post.

2. Delete the default Links.

3. Set Permalinks to: /%category%/%postname%/

4. Under Settings General enter Blog Name and Tagline; for the purpose of this exercise I use  as a Title: WordPress TTP and as a Tagline: Tips, Themes and Plugins

5. Add some content to test content display by importing an RSS feed using a plugin such as Feedwordpress. I pulled into a new category called Blog the feed from my author-blog at:

http://yorgonestoridis.com/feed

We have set up a basic child theme for the purpose of modifying and customizing the Parent Theme. Creating structural modifications such as creating Custom Posts and Taxonomies are not strictly speaking theme relevant but should apply to all themes or as the case may be, to multiple themes in a Multi-user installation.

For this reason we will lodge the file which defines the custom posts outside any specific theme folder but inside wp-contents/themes.

We create a file called posttypes.php in wp-contents/themes. This file serves to define our custom post types and the way they integrate into the WP architecture.

In order to include the new Post Types in our Child theme, we include the posttype.php using an include function. This we doby adding a new file to our child theme; this file we call functions.php.

As you know, every WP theme contains a functions.php file; when creating a child theme which needs to expand the functions existing in the parent theme, then we just add a file with the same name, ‘functions.php’ to the child theme and append the functions defined in the parent theme.

Note: functions.php of the child theme does not override existing functions in the parent theme as is the case with styles (‘style.css)!

PHP allows us easily to include files in a script with the ‘include’ function and then by adding the URL to the file you wish to include.

Our ‘functions.php’ file will look as follows:

Please note that we use the ABSPATH function to construct the URL as the normal url path

does not work here.

Save functions.php into your Child Theme Folder.

In order to set up our post types we proceed step by step:

Custom Post Types allow to separate different content from the traditional blog content. Blog content usually is edited as Posts and Pages, whereas Pages (static content) can be organized in a hierarchical way and posts are sorted by categories and tags. In order to display static content (pages) using customized layout, we can create different page templates easily.

Custom Post Types allow to sort content by Posts and Custom Post Types whereas custom post types are similar to posts but using custom taxonomies and as the case may be custom layouts or design adapted to the content. A typical example is a single product page from a shop compared to a single post page on the blog section of the website.

For the purpose of our exercise we will create 3 Custom Post Types

Setting up post types is relatively easy; while we could use plugins to create custom post types, I think hard-coding is a more solid and professional way of creating them. To create a new Custom Post Type we just need to add a few lines of code to the functions file or in our case to the abstraction file at posttypes.php which will then be included int the functions.php as per above where we have added the include function into functions.php.

We will create now the 3 Custom Post Types whereas the code used for each of them is the same except for the post type names and the function names.

To create the first post type, edit posttypes.php and paste in:

Save the file.

At the top we type a comment explaining what the following code is all about (Add new Post Type for WP Tips). Then we call the function in to WordPress with ‘add_action’ and at the bottom we register the post type. As you can see the function consists of a number of arguments which we will look into later ($args).

Check out your Dashboard now and you will see that the new post type is added to the menu just above ‘Appearance’.

To add new post types, you just need to copy and paste the above code and make simple changes to the name and labels of the post type.

The above post types work, however they are not well refined. For this reason we will add some more variables. As the new posts are still called “Post” in the editor for example we will need to relabel to display the real name of the post type. For this we will write a label variable which can take an array of labels and we thus relabel all instances of our Custom Post Type.

The variable we create with the array of labels looks as follows:

We will insert this piece of code just before our block of arguments and then change the arguments accordingly as follows:

As you can see from the two commented lines, we have changed ‘label’ to ‘labels and defined with the variable from above ‘$wordpress_tips_labels’ and we have deleted the ‘singular label’ as it is replaced wby ‘singular name’ from the label variable.

For the other new post types it’s the same game, just copy and paste and change the labels accordingly.

Save posttypes.php and check it out in your dashboard.

You will now see all labels added and your site becomes a lot more user-friendly and less confusing.

We can define the functionalities of our new post types with an array under the variable ‘supports’; basically the ‘supports’ line defines which functionalities should be supported, i.e. which content should be displayed.

In our example, the line above looks like this:

When you go to your dashboard, and add a new WP Tip you will see the editor shows the ‘title’, ‘content’ and ‘comments’ fields.

While we can go crazy on adding supported functionality, we will here just look at some standard functionalities. To add more functionality we just need to append the array in the supports variable like so:

By adding the above functionalities to the supports variable, we get something pretty close to the standard post editor, since we add the author, excerpts and custom fields as well as the featured picture functionality.

Also we can add a new variable, such as ‘has archive’ and then name the archive, in our example ‘WordPress Tips’.

This archive variable allows us to create an index page just for the WP Tips post  types.

Our Code for the WP Tips Custom Post Type is as follows:

Copy and paste with the necessary changes for the other custom post types and save the file.

Check it out from the Dashboard Menu and the Editor.

As per now, our custom posts menu in the dashboard is positioned just above appearance and below comments. As custom posts are similar to posts, we want to move the custom post tabs just below the Posts tab.

As you can see from our code above, the menu position is set to ‘null’. The value ‘null’ makes that the custom post types are added at the bottom of the first section of the dashboard menu.

Depending of where you want to position your custom posts, you will need to change the value ‘null’ to another value according to the below reference scale:

0 — at the very top
5 — below Posts
10 — below Media
15 — below Links
20 — below Pages
25 — below comments
60 — below first separator
65 — below Plugins
70 — below Users
75 — below Tools
80 — below Settings
100 — below second separator

As we aim the spot below “Posts” we will use the value ‘5’, which will result in

If you want to set a particular order, you can also use 3 different numbers, like 4,5 and 6 respectively.

Do the modification inside the arguments of each post type and save.

By repositioning the custom post type menu items , we signal priority and importance.

Check it out from the dashboard and note that our custom posts are right below ‘Posts’ now.

In order to make our custom post types stick out from the menu and to add user-friendly visual identifiers, we replace the default icons with custom icons.

There are two sizes needed, 16px and 32 px for the menu and the page title area respectively.

I have created sample icons and psd files for your convenience: please download from HERE.

Decompress the downloaded rar file and copy the image folder into wp-contents/themes (as we had done with posttypes.php, as we want to make these images available to all themes.

To add these icons we introduce a new function to posttypes.php with a function batch including some css/html code for styling purposes:

Note the incomplete php delimiter at the end which is needed to switch back to php from css/html code.

At this stage, your posttypes.php looks as follows:

Check it out from your dashboard and you should see something similar to this:

Custom Post Types with Custom Icons

Related posts: How to build a Custom WordPress Site 2 How to build a custom WordPress Site Custom Widgets for WordPress WordPress 3.4 Beta Facebook Strategy with WordPress

Semiomantics XO for WordPress — Custom Magazine

Like on any live site, our test site on BitNami allows us to add themes either from the Dashboard (upload the theme’s zip file) or by pasting the theme into the themes folder in wp-contents.

Access your BitNami environment using Windows Explorer and surf to the themes folder. You will see the same folders and files structure under htdocs as you are used to when accessing your WordPress folder on a server using an FTP client.

Folders on BitNamy WP Stack

In order to add Themes, we just drop theme folders into the ‘themes’ folder as per above. As you can see, I have amongst others) added my Semiomantics XO (the ‘xo’ folder under themes). XO will serve as the parent theme of the new website. Instead however of customizing XO directly, I will create a child theme which will contain all modifications. The advantage is clear: when an update or upgrade of the theme becomes available, the parent theme can be updated without destroying the child and restarting the customization job from scratch.

A WordPress child theme consists first of all of a Folder to which we add a style-sheet.

This style-sheet contains a commented header which defines the parent theme folder as well as other optional data and it usually imports the parent theme’s style-sheet with a simple line of code (no need to copy paste the whole style-sheet). Also we will add a screenshot which will serve as a thumbnail in the Themes tab of our WP Dashboard.

Style-sheet for Child Theme

As you can see above, I am editing my files using the free PSPad which is handy to edit the various files we need to develop.

1. Add a new folder to the WP Themes folder under wp-contents/themes; name it as you like your theme to be named, in my case: yorgo12

2. Create a new file called style.css using your editor and save it into the new theme folder.

3. Edit the style.css file by adding a commented section defining:

You could add other data as some authors do, such as Author’s URI and more, but that’s not necessary.

NOTE: All the above information sits between comment tags (/*.….….*/)

Next, we import the style-sheet of the parent theme with the following line of code:

I have then added a comment to remind that you should not edit above unless you know what you do.

Your style.css file reads now similar to the following:

Save the file into the new Child Theme folder.

4. Add a Thumbnail

Usually the image represents a screenshot of the new site but it can also be a brand logo or any other image. Important: the image should be called ‘screenshot’ and be in png format to fit into WP. Use image size 300px x 225px for best display.

screenshot.png

Drop the image into the Child Theme folder.

Let’s now activate our new Child Theme from the WP Dashboard under Appearance/Themes.

What you will see is an out of the box XO when looking at the front-end of the site.

Having set the base for our custom development, we will start now to adapt the site to the needs of the hypothetical customer. Continue reading the next post.

Related posts:How to build a custom WordPress SiteSemiomantics XO Transparent WordPress DraftsHow to make WordPress Themes ResponsiveWordPress Themes and DevelopmentWordPress 3.4 Beta

We will therefore use most of our remaining daily Ycademy calls this month to go into advanced customization issues. But first we will start at the beginning by planning and formulating a project which will allow us to test code, functions and design.

Semiomantics XO Custom Theme for WordPress

For the purpose of this exercise, we will build plan and execute a hypothetical customer’s project.

The new website will be about WordPress, namely about WordPress Tips, Themes and Plugins. It’s a site for a WordPress developer and web designer.

The structure of the Website will be based on WordPress and include some static pages such as the About, Contact, Imprint and Privacy pages as well as structured dynamic content.  As the site will focus on 3 main topics, Tips, Themes and Plugins, we will build for each of these topics custom Posts and Taxonomies.

To build the new website in a test environment, we install BitNami and namely the WordPress stack (free download). BitNami creates an independent (Apache) server environment with MySQL server and installed WordPress, ready to use via our browser. If you are used to Firefox and Firebug, you will find it easy to customize your styles and designs.

Now we can access the WordPress Dashboard via the browser and the files using windows explorer.

We are ready to start working on our project. Please look forward to the next related post where we will start adding Semiomantics XO and start building our custom child theme.

Related posts: XO Photo Press WordPress Theme Elegant WordPress by Semiomantics 101 How to Customize your WordPress Typography Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts WordPress Personal CMS and Blog

Media Development and Design Ycademy

Website Development has changed in recent years: while 10 years ago simple html sites with some embedded small pictures were the rule, customers ask increasingly for advanced media features, interactivity and connectivity namely with social networks.

The Path to ...

Hiod, YORGOO and Ycademy have made cutting edge technology available to a broad public and part-time site developers since 2001. We continue to develop along general trends by helping ordinary people reaching extraordinary results in an environment where by definition things become more complex and demand permanent education, be it just to allow to target marketing efforts to the ever moving target of the masses: from the PC to the Laptop, to Social Networks and to Mobile devices.

Semiomantics semantic Online Publishing Frameworks

With Semiomantics we have created a versatile WordPress based publishing platform for individuals and pros. Semiomantics scripts can handle most any content in most any format and are fully multimedia enabled; however web designers who customize the scripts need to be able to edit more demanding formats, such as multimedia requiring at least basic knowledge of flash, after effects, media encoding and such like.

Of course these tasks can be out-sourced, however as these features are in the trend, they are also the ones representing most of the added value.

Ycademy will continue to provide to Ycademy Seminar Participants scripts for personal use which can be edited without any knowledge of Flash and such like. Such scripts however are not adapted for commercial use, since they do not represent the necessary security and protection of content.

Ycademy

Ycademy remains the most cost effective access to high performance scripts and advanced technology.

... success ...

For Website Developers and Web designers Ycademy continues to offer support and step by step introduction to advanced technology.

At this point in time, we are preparing to move ahead by focusing on media related basic knowledge. This includes trainings related to programs such as Adobe Flash, After Effects, Media Encoder and more.

Over the last 3 months we have been on a very fast educational track as we needed to catch up rapidly with some missing knowledge, namely in the fields of image editing and publishing and photography.

The next step will be flash for those who are interested in being able to provide better visual effects with lower file weight. Also, Flash allows us to profit from the most recent Semiomantics developments;  Semiomantics advanced xml optimization entails high response from Search Spiders and allows for top ranking with Flash encoded sites.

I am aware that flash encoding requires the use of Adobe’s flash editor and the curriculum is therefore designed for participants who dispose of Flash Pro (at least version CS 3).

Photoshop vs. Flash

When deciding to set up our educational sessions pertaining to Photoshop, we focused already on the logical consequence: Photoshop leads to Flash.

Photoshop is a design tool developed originally for the printing industry, not the web. Photoshop is the industry standard for editing images and bitmaps, while Flash sets the standard for vector and raster graphics. In simple terms: Photoshop is for static stuff, while Flash is for animated 2 dimensional stuff. Photoshop is best for Print output, while Flash is best for Web output.

... with a vision ...

Photoshop’s image output can be easily copied and reproduced, while Flash is not easy to reproduce and is therefore more secure.

Flash has it’s own programing language called ActionScript; using ActionScript we can create applications, games, interactive content and so on. Streaming video can be easily controlled by Flash using ActionScript (see YouTube).

Flash helps to express ourselves better in the web environment, it allows for more flexibility, security and interaction. Flash leads logically to 3D and 3D animation.

Flash Ycademy

Moving on to Flash with interested participants needs some planning based on the following key factors:

1. Interest

Is there sufficient interest in a Flash Curriculum? The plan includes 2 Flash sessions per week (Tuesday and Thursday). The session will focus on Flash Basics in order to learn as quickly as possible to work with templates and to customize templates for customers’ needs.

The remaining 3 weekly sessions, (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) will focus on Marketing, Editing and Publishing using WordPress CMS, Semiomantics and improving our skills and editing by applying our knowledge of CSS, Photoshop,  Digital Photography.

The Flash Curriculum will require thorough preparation from our end and availability form participant’s side. Participants need to be properly equipped, which implies the installation of a Flash editor on the Computer.

In order to make this worth the effort, we estimate that we need at least 10 participants. Cost and arrangements will be comparable to earlier similar set-ups such as our curriculum for Office 2010 or Photoshop CS4.

... to embarke for a Journey ...

2. The Equipment

Participants must be properly equipped to profit from the sessions. We will need Flash Pro as well as Photoshop.

3. The Seminar

If we proceed with the above plan, then we will be able to hold an interesting Ycademy Seminar in May which will be interesting and open for Flash savvy participants as well as for participants who do not edit flash. The seminar will deal with Flash and xml, the latter allowing participants to build flash sites and features without editing flash, while the first will be able to embed content selectively into Flash.

In a certain way, the Seminar will be a continuation of the March Seminar where we have introduced Semiomantics Evolution. New templates will be available for different purposes, whereas some participants will edit just xml, others the fla files to come to the same visual result on the first shot applying different techniques.

Your input is needed

I would be interested to find out what you think about the above plan and get some feed-back about prevailing interest and commitment.

... as successful online editors and publishers.

Please comment here below and join tomorrow’s session where we will detail the above to give you a clear view of what we have in mind and where it will lead to.

Don’t be worried about the eventual difficulties; while we are learning Flash we will have the opportunity to profit from our existing knowledge and solidify our Photoshop, CSS, Digital Photography and xml skills. The pace will be reduced compared to the last 3 months where we have gone fast and often spent more time on a day to day bases than anticipated.

I am looking forward to your input.

Thanks!

PS: The pics have been taken yesterday and I have just pulled them through a B&W Holga Filter in Photoshop.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

While we may all have our favourite hangout spots and like to follow our friends’ suggestions when visiting a new one, Restaurant Websites help to find new places when travelling to another town or an unknown area.

For this reason, a restaurant website needs to indicate what it specializes on in terms of food (seafood, country cuisine, Thai Food etc…) and it must offer clear directions, possibly through Google Maps or good photography of the environment.

Friends, real ones and those we collect on Social Networks, suggest… but then Pictures sell the Restaurant and Menu!
It’s through the way a Restaurant Blog communicates its atmosphere, service and – of course – mouth-watering menus, wines, cocktails and specials – that we are attracted to one or another. Often these reactions are spontaneous and following our belly!

Restaurant websites and blogs serve as a brilliant, easy and fun way to be and keep in touch with the restaurant clientele, inform them of what’s new on the menu or which ‘Specials’ are on when and where, especially also around major annual festivities and events like for Christmas Dinners, New Year’s Dinners or for Valentine’s Day or linked to certain activities and festivals in the area or town, eg music concerts, sports events and the like.

Restaurants should ideally have a “Wine and Dine” Fanpage on Facebook that’s kept up-to-date with what’s happening, where questions are answered and where there’s continuous conversation.

Besides, and most importantly, a restaurant must be easily reachable on the Mobile Web. People want to see what’s on offer and hit the booking button fast – often just minutes before they arrive !

We at Web Design with Passion develop and design elegant, user-friendly and extremely Google efficient websites and blogs exclusively on WP based Semiomantics – have a look and get in touch HERE to discuss what you may be needing.

Restaurant Websites Sell!

And publishing regular original content is crucial for the success of an Author Blog.

If you look at my Author Blog, you find anything related to Art, Media Design, Website Development and Design, Photography, Nature and… of course South Africa. This is where my heart and focus are and this leaves me a lot of scope for things to investigate, research, be enthusiastic about and share in form of any kind of expression that’s possible online.

While many people believe they can get away in a ‘free’ way by just using their Facebook accounts to write and express themselves, they don’t operate from a position of freedom – like if they would be owning their own website or blog where they are in full control. Social Networks work for themselves and make and change the rules, they possess your content – be it written or in form of photos – and even sell you without your consent or vote nor giving you a fair share.

If a herd mentality is what you like, this will not bother you and you gladly pay the price.

If, however, you wish to be independent and build your own reputation online, based on your name, your talents and your services and/or products, there is no way around having your own personalized Author Blog or website.

Think about it and get started – for instance on a free WordPress Blog. If you want something more sophisticated, have a look at my SHOWCASE and – if and once you’re ready for your own driver’s seat online – let’s talk!

As today the Moon is at it’s closest to the earth for this year, I did a test run last night and brought back the following shot:

This is about as good as it could get

The above was shot with the following

F-stop:                   f/6.3

Exposure time:    1/250

ISO-speed             ISO-400

Focal-length:        49 mm

35-mm focal length:  389

Exposure Program: Aperture Priority

The idea was to figure out different settings to catch at least some of the texture of the surface of the moon.

Tonight I found a nice spot, just above Vouliagmeni’s Limanaki to catch the moon rising above the Varkiza Bay.

Click to view the bigger version for more detail.

This time I went for Shutter Priority and ISO 200 which resulted in an Exposure Time of 0,77 sec. Also I used an Exposure Bias of +0.7 step.

Of course this is not the kind of quality you could expect from a professional picture, but it shows what you can do with most any point and shoot.

The temptation to pull such pictures through Photoshop is evident and I have not resisted just for the fun.

And a cooler version, filtering out some red which we usually see when the moon rises at the sea:

Related posts: Shooting at the Moon HD Video with your Digital Photo Camera iPhone 4 Photo Camera Review 1 Vouliagmeni Kavouri Beach Flowers from Vouliagmeni Beach

Whether it is a simple blog or a shop, a photo site or a video library, a directory or any other content, your website can be converted and integrated into a mobile App. Production cost will vary in function of the complexity of the development. I mention cost at this point because for the time being, App developments are still relatively expensive, but that’s the price to pay for a seat in the front row.

The mobile web and mobile devices and platforms offer today many features designed to enhance conversation, feedback and interaction which are much more dynamic, flexible and user-friendly than those offered on traditional websites. Also, an App is much easier to use on a smartphone than surfing a website.

Bookmarking a website and then accessing (loading) it at a later time is one thing; accessing an app with the content already downloaded to the device is a completely different story. Surfing the web on a smart device is in many countries relatively slow and linked to excessive cost for bandwidth. The App is a onetime download and thereafter only updates will need to be downloaded, which saves time and bandwidth.

Communication between the user and the App owner or amongst the users can take place using all mobile features, from email, over SMS to Push Notifications which will display an alert immediately. Skype integration (or other communication plugins) is a plus.

The mobile web has been dominated by Blackberry first, today by Apple (iOS, iPhone, iPad), Android Operating System by Google and Microsoft with Windows Mobile. Producing for multiple platforms is costly but seems to become a necessity for as long as no uniform standards prevail.

Like publishing a website, App publishing has to do with visibility, traffic and sales. Mobile web users are active on Google, Facebook and in App Stores to find what they are looking for. This is a key issue: Apple’s App Store with over 500 000 Apps has become a real search heaven. If your name, brand or product is not available there, you are losing out on the potential of the mobile market.

You can write the best App in this world, if it cannot be discovered by interested people, it’s worthless. As mobile web users surf the stores to find Apps corresponding to their needs, it is important to

For the time being it is not clear how Search Engines will deal with Apps nor how App stores will make more App related info available to bots, however it can be expected that sooner or later Google will include App results as they have included Video and Images or Local Content into their search returns.

Related posts: Semiomantics Mobile Developments XO Mobile Theme with WPTouch Pro WP Best Business Theme Home Page Home Business Tax Benefits Facebook and Home Business

With so much heaviness and pain to be finding its angry expression over the course of this day in many parts of the world, some of us are determined to balance this with loving and peaceful vibrations… Make your choice – and follow your heart.

On another level, 1 May 2012 Results on Google are my main objective with this little article – namely where did yesterday’s post end up?

Hotels and Lodges Websites show an incredible amount of search returns on Google: 3,250,000,000 ! Sounds like counting the stars… and yet, as I checked the position of my featured images, I found two of them on page one as you can see on the screenshot! SEO results that talk!

There were more images from my Web Design Showcase at http://showcase.biancagubalke.com on the following pages, but what I want to illustrate here is the efficiency of my work in terms of Website Development with Semiomantics – nothing more, nothing less.

There are many stunning websites for hotels and lodges – the question is always: if and where do they show up on Google Top 10 and at what price?

Here’s with sunshine from South Africa and wishing you a peaceful 1 May 2012!

Of course, like in any website development, Hotels and Lodges Websites need to offer relevant functionalities and be user-friendly in terms of navigation. Visitors want to see what they like and then surf quickly to a Booking Form where they get a quick overview in terms of availability and prices and where they have access to simple and reliable payment gateways.

Having said that, what remains as the most challenging part for the web designer is how to achieve top positions with a Hotel Website, meaning the website’s performance on Google against stiff competition in the Travel and Tourism Industry.

But this is exactly where we at Semiomantics excel: once properly setup and indexed on Google, your path to top rankings is assured – provided you keep the website dynamic and active. Our regular tests in terms of website optimization and performance proove it daily!

Save by performing better – have a look at http://showcase.biancagubalke.com  !

We did quite some research when creating a new website for Used Cars and Trucks for our customer Magnetic Transport Surplus in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao.

Just as with any other website, cars and trucks websites want to achieve certain goals: to attract customers and potential buyers – in other words sell – and to build a reputation on the Internet and brand themselves.

Branding requires a lot of research and development, especially in terms of Logo Design and Icon Design. While there are brilliant and high-paid professionals doing exactly just that – and I have met some of the best – this demands budgets that are far out of reach for new or relatively young companies.

Accordingly, the web designer will often be asked to come up with integrated solutions that work both online and offline.

This is a service our professional Web Design South Africa Team can provide. Please visit our brand-new  SHOWCASE HERE  for the latest Web Design examples.

Before publishing this article, I checked “Cars and Trucks Images” to capture what is currently seen there – right now at 11:55 am:

Why?

People react more to images – visuals – than to text. While our original content remains the main issue in terms of keywords and especially tags, Google picks up our photos and pictures as well as you see on the above screenshot.

As my regular routine test, I will see where my Cars and Trucks Image will land in terms of ranking – and how fast – after I publish right now, at 12:30 pm!

It’s always an interesting exercise… so above we have the ‘before’ image and let’s see how it looks ‘after’ the publication of this article!

This indicates that in a so-called economic crisis Art still seems to be a hot commodity, although the Press often paints a very different if not sinistre picture.

Being an artist myself and having created Artist Portraits for television, I work on ways of presenting Art online in a way that everybody can encounter this fascinating medium that envelops us in energy fields that connect us to our inner truth. And it exercises our thinking muscle and maybe – just maybe – encourages to break free. Some Artwork resonnates, others doesn’t – however, there is a quiet dialogue, unencumbered by the treachery of the spoken word… so often abused to this very day.

Exactly that was captured by the Art Exhibition “The Human Abused” by German sculptor, Guenther Uecker, in February 2011, in The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. I had come to see my friend and his latest work after so many years – and spontaneous snapshots turned into a website featuring an Art Documentation.

While I reported extensively on this Art Exhibition at the time, what interests me now while designing my new Web Design Showcase – and obviously including Art Exhibition Websites – is the performance on search engines. While nothing much can be said at this early stage and given the massive search returns as per above, what is quite astounding is the fact that we already feature right at the top of page 2 in terms of Images for Art Exhibitions Website – see the screenshot below.

While most artists are represented by galleries, there are many artists who wish to be in control and present themselves on the Internet. So the question is: What does an Artist need online?

Here as in most of the other chapters where products and/or services are being sold it’s about presenting the artist’s oeuvre in an appealing way on one hand… but most importantly the artist’s website needs to be visible on Google where people would look for it.

Of course, artists normally brand their name and people interested in their work would look them up under that name – so they don’t need Google for that. However, why then is there such fierce competition  among Art Exhibition Websites?

If you are an artist, think about it and consider what you could do yourself and your career. Branding your work under your own name and in your own style should be conducive to building your reputation online. And while we do no longer work in Flash since the rapid evolution of the mobile web where Flash does not show, we have adapted the latest technology to make your work stand out and be found – even on an iPhone!

Semiomantics New Formula

Semiomantics has been founded in 2007 to share Strategic Blogging with YORGOO Pro members and to pass on insider knowledge to Ycademy Pros. Starting in November 2007 with the Magic Search Traffic Formula, some 238 Semiomantics powered sites have been built since; they are all high scorers on Google Top 10.

Time has come to wrap up Semiomantics and to consolidate Semiomantics products and knowledge. Semiomantics will become the Publishing arm of Protos Magas, a new private venture. The reason for this move is purely material. Semiomantics has been sponsored by YORGOO and Ycademy since it’s creation; the restructuring of the two programs does not foresee any room for Semiomantics.

Semiomantics

Semiomantics has been built to optimize the WordPress backbone for the purpose of high performance online publishing. Semiomantics has developed Themes, WordPress script modifications and plug-ins to achieve the best ever Google Top 10 performance. I am not aware of any script or WordPress related product triggering similar results. Semiomantics never went for public recognition, for example by participating in the free theme, free plug-in or free anything frenzy. To perform better, Semiomantics decided to remain discrete and to provide its services to a select number of people and customers who believe that only the best is good enough to save time and money with online publishing and marketing.

Semiomantics will continue to focus on high performance publishing providing its services and products to professionals and direct customers only. The complexity of semantic publishing implying multimedia features requires advanced knowledge to develop new customer products on the bases of Semiomantics. We are therefore not able to continue to make Semiomantics available to a large public.

web-design

Semiomantics Publishing

Semiomantics Products

Semiomantics will continue to develop products such as NewsCast and XO versions 2010 for WordPress 2.9.x.

In as much as WordPress 3 is concerned, a new product line will be developed and applied only to customer sites which run on WPMU such as YORGOO Media, Ceguna or Articles4u.

Semiomantics Future

Semiomantics will need to develop its own economic model for further development. Sure, Semiomantics is the Rolls Royce amongst the WordPress based website scripts, designed for a happy few. This aspect of the product will not change since Semiomantics products cannot be mass products as the configuration, set-up and design will always be based on customers’ specific needs and purpose.

Semiomantics development will continue and exciting new products will become available in the near future. We will make more information available as soon as the new structure is in place.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

At Semiomantics the starting point for our development is the most comprehensive conversion plugin, called WPTouch Pro. WPTouch has released its latest version end of March 2012 with some adjustments for iOS 5.1 and many other fixes and developments:

The above recent change-logs indicate the extent of considerations necessary for a serious development of an integrated mobile WP based solution. The reason for such complexity lies amongst others in the following:

At Semiomantics we aim to make complex matters simple for day to day use. As an author or business, you don’t want to spend your time with technical issues or sitting logged into social networks to keep up with the continuous stream of information and exchanges. You want to do your business and be assured that your message gets spread broadly and that visitors requests are piped to proper destination without your intervention.

Semiomantics Developers are trained to build high end customer specific solutions assuring optimized productivity and workflow.

Based on the above, the Seminar will provide all necessary updates and upgrades for existing and new installations of high end websites, namely those built on Semiomantics XO and EVO frameworks.

During numerous Workshops we will knock participants personal sites into shape to comply with the highest standards.

We will go step by step through the set-up and development of the customized version of each participants author site. This includes the following workshops:

We will focus on Facebook in particular. Mobile Facebook is quite restrictive; it is therefore important to learn about what is visible on mobile FB and what cannot be accessed, respectively, how we may work around some of these restrictions.

In fact: Mobile Facebook is quite disappointing, be it whether you access it via the App or the browser. Custom content on app driven canvas pages and page favorites don’t display! Even promoting their link on the wall will not trigger any display. There are some workarounds by using different browsers where you can modify browser settings and simulate a desktop browser, but that’s not a solution for the masses.

Facebook is not here to promote YOUR site but just to grab your content for it’s own purpose.

The Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on April 28/29, 2012 starting daily as usual at 1 p.m. London Time and closing at 9 p.m. London time.

All materials and scripts are provided and included.

The cost for this seminar is $85; discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros (please mail Bianca at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the coupon code.

Click on the below image to get your ticket.

Related posts: Facebook and Mobile Web Seminar by Ycademy Ycademy Online Seminar January 2012 Ycademy Online Seminar May 2011 Facebook Online Seminar by Ycademy Facebook Strategy with WordPress

At Semiomantics the starting point for our development is the most comprehensive conversion plugin, called WPTouch Pro. WPTouch has released its latest version end of March 2012 with some adjustments for iOS 5.1 and many other fixes and developments:

The above recent change-logs indicate the extent of considerations necessary for a serious development of an integrated mobile WP based solution. The reason for such complexity lies amongst others in the following:

At Semiomantics we aim to make complex matters simple for day to day use. As an author or business, you don’t want to spend your time with technical issues or sitting logged into social networks to keep up with the continuous stream of information and exchanges. You want to do your business and be assured that your message gets spread broadly and that visitors requests are piped to proper destination without your intervention.

Semiomantics Developers are trained to build high end customer specific solutions assuring optimized productivity and workflow.

Based on the above, the Seminar will provide all necessary updates and upgrades for existing and new installations of high end websites, namely those built on Semiomantics XO and EVO frameworks.

During numerous Workshops we will knock participants personal sites into shape to comply with the highest standards.

We will go step by step through the set-up and development of the customized version of each participants author site. This includes the following workshops:

We will focus on Facebook in particular. Mobile Facebook is quite restrictive; it is therefore important to learn about what is visible on mobile FB and what cannot be accessed, respectively, how we may work around some of these restrictions.

In fact: Mobile Facebook is quite disappointing, be it whether you access it via the App or the browser. Custom content on app driven canvas pages and page favorites don’t display! Even promoting their link on the wall will not trigger any display. There are some workarounds by using different browsers where you can modify browser settings and simulate a desktop browser, but that’s not a solution for the masses.

Facebook is not here to promote YOUR site but just to grab your content for it’s own purpose.

The Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on April 28/29, 2012 starting daily as usual at 1 p.m. London Time and closing at 9 p.m. London time.

All materials and scripts are provided and included.

The cost for this seminar is $85; discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros (please mail Bianca at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the coupon code.

Click on the below image to get your ticket.

Related posts: Facebook and Mobile Web Seminar by Ycademy Ycademy Online Seminar January 2012 Ycademy Online Seminar May 2011 Facebook Online Seminar by Ycademy Facebook Strategy with WordPress

While most of the Website Development 2011 is now presented, it will still take some time until I can set up the Photography category featuring some of my digital photography taken over the last year up till now.

While I’m quite familiar with the script as I designed the comprehensive Wedding Website on it, I am always amazed at its versatility and how it allows us to present in different shapes and forms according to our personal taste and priorities, with the visitor just having to get his clicking finger into action and discover what’s where!

As it’s autumn in South Africa now – with some good rainfall over the past 10 days – it means we are spending many hours in our gardens preparing everything for winter, but also doing some planting and seeding.

Having bought a bootfull of plants and shrubs in Kirstebosch Gardens on Saturday, I have a lot of work ahead of me… and the birds have already spotted the protea “Pink Ice” with its stunning light pink flowers waiting for its final location just outside my studio door! I will plant it out later today, once it’s a bit cooler… and after my round in the forest to see whether I can find some mushrooms for dinner! Two days ago there was absolutely nothing on this side of the mountain, while a friend sent me decadent pictures of what he had found in the forest on the other side! Let’s see what I will discover after today’s sunshine… and get some decadent images back to him!

Nothing beats a good pasta with fresh Cape mushrooms – especially ‘cepes’!

Global The Brand Fonts

An important element of branding are Fonts. In the case of Global The Brand the selected fonts will not only appear online or on printed and visual media, but they will also be stitched or glued to all the products, from Kicks to Caps.

Having followed multiple avenues, here is the outcome of a first branding project in as much as fonts are concerned.

fonts800

Global The Brand

We have tested the fonts on YouTube as well. Have a look at the short YouTube clip HERE *

* Please note: I am getting better outputs on YouTube :-).

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

The implementation methods via add_custom_background() and add_custom_image_header() will be depreciated and replaced by a more powerful method via add_theme_support().

Due to the depreciation of the old calls, we will need to update the themes and make the modifications needed to take advantage of the new features provided by WordPress 3.4. The new theme versions will work with WP 3.4 minimum and must not be used with previous WP versions.

Custom developments and child themes may need a special treatment, depending on the degree of customization. I will arrange for some developers calls or set up some tutorials in due course. For the time being I am testing WP 3.4 Beta to check backwards compatibility using our themes.

I will keep you posted on results and updates.

Related posts: Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts How to Customize your WordPress Typography WordPress Themes and Development Showcase Portfolio Photo Theme for WordPress YORGOO Blaster YB271 Beta