Antonio Riveras » Blog

Reasons I choose Wordpress

Antonio Riveras — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:32:53 +0000

I’m a huge Wordpress fan. Every project I work with ends up being a Wordpress site. I can be honest and say that it’s the only CMS I know how to work with besides CushyCMS and that’s the main reason I choose to work with it.

Even so, I have more reasons than the previously stated.

Lots of Plugins
Easy to tweek the code
Lot’s of themes
Huge online community and support

I also believe that Wordpress will grow to be the biggest and most common CMS in the market, even for those who don’t know about web and internet. Thanks to Google and the love it has for Wordpress, many people are starting to switch over to Wordpress from Joomla and other systems.

What CMS are you using and why?

The programmers choice?

Antonio Riveras — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:12:33 +0000

When buying elements on the river you see alot of different categories, with items ranging from business cards to backgrounds for the web. When designing these kind of elements you have to consider who is buying it and not only design something that you think is pretty.

My thing is trying to figure what kind of graphics a programmer would want to buy…

Buttons

Buttons are very popular on Graphic River and I’m not surprised that they are. Programmers need buttons designed not only for the web, but for their applications as well. It could be an iPhone app just a button for a sig up form.

Menus

Programmers who don’t need an entire template but just a few elements designed usually buy menu graphics. Menus are extremely popular and they also serve as a starting point for the rest of the design on website.

Business Cards

For a while, business cards flourished on the river and people where designing cards like crazy. A business cards is a must have when running a business and that’s why I believe that they will always stay popular, especially for programmers who don’t have a clue about how to design business cards.

How to sell well on Graphic River

Antonio Riveras — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:27:38 +0000

Graphic River is a great market, sure. But the competition is getting tight, more and more creative artists are starting to upload outstanding work for all you programmers out there. Selling is a competition and it’s important for you to know just how to gain first place, and sell well on Graphic River.

Look at what’s popular

Take a look around the gallery and see what’s popular and selling the most. Pick something you’re familiar with, don’t try to exceed in something you don’t have a clue about.

Can you do it differently?

When you’ve finished your search and seen what’s popular, try and look at it and think – ”How can I do it differently?”. There is absolutely no point in doing the same thing, it won’t sell and it won’t be approved either.

Make a good impression with a good presentation

Presentations is key and will determine how well your item sells. I’ve seen hundreds of ”not-so-good” items sell in huge amounts just because the presentation is done well.

Make sure that you show a close view of your item, but also the entire item. A good example is something like this:

Here I’ve tried to showcase the best features of my item and at the same time show the entire package. This items has sold 15 times since April 18:th. Pretty OK if you ask me…

Provide a solid description

The only this left now is the items description. Try to cover as much as possible without writing an entire essay. A smart way of desicribing is putting up a list of what’s included in the package. This gives your buyer a good and easy view of what’s he/she is buying. Simple as that…

From Photoshop to Wordpress

Antonio Riveras — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:51:00 +0000

It was only about a year ago that Wordpress was introduced into my life. All the positive feedback I read on forums and blogs made me order the book Wordpress Complete and start learning everything there is to create Wordpress Themes. Wordpress is an excellent tool if you’re a designer or developer and want the opportunity to create a flexible web site.

When creating a Wordpress theme the steps look something like this:

Photoshop –> XHTML/CSS –> Wordpress.

How does each step look like then?

Photoshop

I start off by designing the website in Photoshop. This is were I decide where the web sites header, menu and content is placed as well. Appropriate guidelines are set so I can begin to slice up my images.

Photoshop to XHTML/CSS

When the design is done it’s time to slice up the images so I can code the xhtml/css. Thanks to the guidelines I can quickly use the crop tool and start slicing and saving each image. This step is fast, I just save all the images with appropriate names under a well-thought folder structure.

XHTML/CSS

Now that everything is slice up it’s time to start coding the XHTML/CSS. My primary tool is xHTML-Kit. Everything is coded from scratch with the help of a modified version of Eric Meyers reset.css.

As a preamptive measure I code just about everything that’s going to be displayed on my wordpress site. Some people only code the basics and then return to Wordpress, start implementing the functions and then return to finish off the coding in xhtml/css.

That’s not the way I do it. I do the complete styling (css) of the html that Wordpress renders and then I implement all of the wordpress functions. This process is much smoother, but you need to know exactly how Wordpress renders the HTML.

XHTML/CSS to Wordpress

By now I’ve designed my Wordpress theme, slice up all the images and coded everything in XHTML/CSS. Now it’s time to make this template into a Wordpress site.

Since I’ve already styled everything I just need to divide the page into header.php, footer.php, siderbar.php and index.php. When that part is done I start implementing all of the functions.

The functions I implement depend on what my Wordpress site looks like and how it works. The primary functions are the loop, displaying categories, dates and comments.

I’m basically finished now. I might have some minor adjustments to make, but the core of the site is done and ready to be installed as a theme.

SEO-plugins for Wordpress

Antonio Riveras — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:51:33 +0000

Wordpress is a great platform for anyone who has a website. It’s very flexible and comes with a ton of plugins so you can enhance it’s power. Plugins come in many forms and variations. These plugins are for optimizing your wordpress site for the search engines.

All in One SEO Pack – One of the most popular plugins ever for WordPress, this plugin does a bit of everything, from helping you choose the best post title and keywords, to helping you avoid duplicate content and alot more.

Automatic SEO Links – Automatic SEO Links lets you to choose a word or phrase for automatic linking, both internal and external, set anchor text, choose if it should be “nofollow” or not, and more.

Google XML Sitemaps – An essential tool in any blogger’s armory of SEO tools. While the name only mentions Google, this plugin creates an XML-sitemap that can be read by Ask, MSN and Yahoo also.

HeadSpace2 – This plugin allows you to install all sorts of meta-data, add specific JavaScript and CSS to pages, suggests tags for your posts and much more

Meta Robots WordPress plugin – An easy solution for adding robot metadata to any page you choose on your blog. You can use it to make your front page links into “nofollows,” prevent indexing of search pages, prevent indexing of your login page and other features.

Use these plugins and you’ll get more visitors to your blog. I use All In One SEO for my blog and it does wonders with the traffic I get!

Buying Web Elements

Antonio Riveras — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:40:42 +0000

If you could buy graphics for your web site, not entire site templates…Would you? Some people might find this strange, but it’s actually a great market for those who don’t have the necessary design skills but come with an arsenal packed with programming and coding skills.

Original and editable Photoshop Files

On Graphic River you can buy web elements suchs as buttons, backgrounds, headers and menus designed in Photoshop, ready to be sliced up and inserted into your web site or web application. You get the original photoshop file when purchasing an item, so you are fully capable of editing colors and shapes if you need to make certain modifications so the item fits your project.

It’s pretty cheap too

Not only is it really easy for you to purchase an item and customizing it to fit your needs, it’s cheap too! Business cards cost $3.00 and buttons or menus can cost between $2.00 – $10.00 depending on how high of the ”level” of the item is, measured in design.

How are the prices set?

Reviewers set the prices depending on complexity, creativity and standard. They also set the price depending on how or if the items come as ”packages”. For example, one ”item” may consist of 19 buttons plus 6 menu designs.

Marketplaces of this magnitude serve as great resources for everyone who works on the web making web sites or web applications. I believe that anyone who want’s cheap photoshop graphics should become a member of Graphic River.

jQuery Headers uploaded

Antonio Riveras — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:25:50 +0000

I just got my jQuery Headers approved for sale on Graphic River. These headers come in 3 different colors and include a live demo!
You can purchase this item here for only $2.00!

Included in this package is:

.PSD file
3 different color variations of header
Valid XHTML/ CSS
jQuery Slider
Help file

Spice up your web design

Antonio Riveras — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:11:31 +0000

A lot of web designers have a hard time adding that ”extra touch” to their designs. The competition between designers is hard and you have to create a design that in someway stands out from the rest.

My advice is to go with your own style and NOT try to mimic some other designer. It’s OK to be inspired, but it’s NOT OK to rip. Now, withouth leaving the topic: what should you to do spice up your web design?

Create an eye-catching header

Your sites header is the first thing a visitor sees when they enter your site. It should therefore be as attractive and eye-catching as possible and give a good impression of what follows -> your content.

You could for example encourage a user to act, giving them options to click through. In this way you can add more information to your header without wasting any valuable space.

Illustrations and Icons

It’s very important that your visitors are able to visualize what you are trying to explain. Everyone thinks in their own way, that’s why you should try and illustrate your explanation or advice.

Using icons is something I find really helpful when creating a design. The purpose of an icon is to illustrate a meaning, which makes it ideal for using on a headline for example.

Divide information into boxes

It’s always a good idea to divide your information into a box-set. If you want to explain something in a step-by-step process you could create a box for each step, with the information of the steps inside the box.

Entering the Graphic River contest

Antonio Riveras — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:49:19 +0000

That’s right, I’m aiming for the big win. All I had to do was to create my own collection of 30 items and adding the link in the comments of the post. My collection is called ”Programmers Dream” and consists mainly of web elements such as menus and buttons. Some FlashDen items were added but mainly items from Graphic River.

If you’re interested in seeing my bookmarked collection don’t hesitate to check it out here.

Win $3500 on Graphic River!

Antonio Riveras — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:52:07 +0000

Today Envato opens up their biggest competition yet! An awesome chance to win $3500 to spend on the ultimate creative set-up. All you have to do is create a collection of your favourite items from the 5 different Envato marketplaces.

You do this by bookmarking the items you want and then post a link on the blog post. Simple enough, read more about it here.