I recently got a Parrot AR. Drone and I can’t believe how amazingly cool this thing is. One of the best things about the AR. Drone is how easy it is to repair. How easy – well, let me put it this way, in half a dozen videos, you can learn just about everything you need to know to completely take your AR. Drone apart and put the sucker back together again. I was so impressed with the AR. Drone, I build a site dedicated to repairing your Parrot AR. Drone.

There is this theme from Elegant Themes called eGamer that I have been wanting to use ever since I discovered Elegant Themes two years ago and I finally found the right project to fit the theme. Since this theme is a video review theme, it seemed to be a perfect fit to go with the parrot ar. drone repair videos.

This is one of those classic projects that rely on a sexy theme and a handful of plugins. Besides making a few adjustments to the graphics on the theme, this site is largely driven my a really nice Amazon plugin called WPZon. It made it really easy to add Amazon products right on the site.

P.S. If you like the site, please leave a comment below.

Parrot AR. Drone Awesomeness is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

I just got back from WebMatrixFest, a nice little gathering put on by one of Microsoft’s teams. First, let me say that everyone from Microsoft was incredible. The day flew by and dinner was over before I knew it.  Special thanks to Grace and Fernanda for making it so memorable.

The focus of the day was a piece of software called WebMatrix.  You can read a review of WebMatrix here. The real highlight of the day was the time we spoke about Azure. I don’t want to go in to Azure quite yet, as I need to play with it a little bit, but I think this could really change the way web sites get developed and deployed. Web hosting companies beware. If your not part of the cloud, your going to get blown right by.

WebMatrixFest hosted by Microsoft is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

Pleased to announce two new sites that went up recently. The first is a pet news service called Pet News Alerts and leveraged an existing Woo theme. There isn’t too much exciting going on with this site in terms of design. I created a simple logo (sorry – its a complete CNN rip-off) and got the site up and running. The real learning experience with this project was getting to know oDesk and Elance. The client contracted me to find a writing team for the site and using oDesk and Elance was really helpful. Persoanlly, I liked oDesk better. The interface was better, easy to use and quite frankly, I was able to find good talent quickly and at very reasonable prices. So far the site is performing great and the client is happy.

The other project I just completed is a pet supply coupon web site called Coupon-Zoo and I’m really pleased with how the site turned out. For this project I once again, did something new; I bought a pre-made logo from 99 Designs. I never thought I’d resort to buying logos on the cheap, but for what the project needed it was perfect and looks good. 99Designs has a whole library of logos that can be customized incredibly fast and very inexpensively – right around $100. I will definitely be using their services again. The rest of coupon-zoo was a modified theme that I like. I adjusted all of the colors to match the logo and have more of an organic feel and made some other minor tweaks. Check out the site and if you have a pet – check out all the good coupons.

New sites – coupon-zoo.com and petnewsalerts.com is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

I’m working on a custom WordPress theme for a great organization – California Adolescent health Collaborative and I’m running in to a real pain. I’m using the built in navigation tool in WordPress – a nice new feature since the 3.0 release (I think). Too many of my pages and categories have the same name, making it nearly impossible to build the menus. What I’d really like to see is the ID.  In comes some quick custom code. If I were smarter, I’m sure I could make this a plugin that didn’t alter core code, and maybe someone can take what I’ve done to the next level – but right now I need something quick and dirty- a hack. Here it is

Open wp-includes/nav-menu.php and find and replace:

$output .= empty( $item->label ) ? esc_html( $item->title ) : esc_html( $item->label );

with

$output .= empty( $item->label ) ? esc_html( $item->title ).” – ” .$item->ID : esc_html( $item->label ).” – ” .$item->ID;

Any viola – now I can tell the difference. I hope this helps. If it does or you see a better way – please leave a comment.

WordPress Menu Tool Show ID is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

I know things are getting faster and faster, but apparently, for 2011, I’m too slow.

I was recently contacted by a new business perspective – Kris (supposedly a referral – but she never said who). She called the hot-line number and since I was spending the day with my good buddy Dave from Wry Baby and a new friend, Leif from Kaloo, at the Toy Fair at the Javitz center (a black hole for mobile devices) she went to voice mail. In her voice mail, she explicitly requested to be contacted via email, the one that comes “free” with the ISP (who uses that for business?).

Anyway, here is the brief saga between Seth and Kris…

Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 6:40 PM <- already after typical close of business.
Subject: follow-up

Hi Kris,

I’m following up with your voice mail regarding WordPress. I’ll be in my office tomorrow and you can reach me at the number below. I look forward to speaking with you about your project.
Thank You,
Seth

I thought my email subtly said I was done for the night and I would back at work in the morning and I would be happy to do business. Kris responds at 7:21, now early evening, the time when many are getting ready to think about what’s for dinner.

Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 7:21 PM
Subject: WordPress sites / Re: follow-up

Hi Seth,

Monica will be calling you first thing tomorrow at the number you listed. There are several WP projects and she can give you more information than I can.

What do you charge on average to build eCommerce websites?

Thank you,
Kris

Now, admittedly, at some point in the evening I did see Kris’s email and I thought about responding, but didn’t. Here is why:

1. It was after hours and I was no longer at work or performing work related tasks.
2. I proposed a call in the morning and she confirmed, so it seemed we had a scheduled meeting to me.
3. She asked a very loaded question that cannot be answered in a quick email.

At about 10:20 AM I got a call from Monica – as expected. We spoke for about 20 to 30 minutes and we wrapped up the call. The entire call ended up about layout of a new home page. Not once did we speak about programming or eCommerce, in fact it never even came up. The call seemed to be more of a DESIGN project – not a WordPress expert related issue. I felt good about the call and predicted I would at least get a follow up to see if we were the right fit. Nope. This is what I get back.

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: WordPress sites / Re: follow-up

Seth, I am attending a workshop today… we’re on a morning break.

When I didn’t hear back from you on my last email, I contacted another programmer. I left a message for Monica informing her, but she didn’t get my message to not call you and that I secured someone else for the job.

Sorry for the confusion.
Thank you for your time,
Kris

Here is my response:

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 9:32 AM
Subject: RE: WordPress sites / Re: follow-up

Kris,

Wow – that’s really shocking. You emailed me at something like 7:30 pm and told me I’d be speaking with someone in the AM. It seemed really clear to me. Good luck with your programmer.
-s

And finally Kris gets in the last word, via email anyway.

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: WordPress sites / Re: follow-up

Seth,

I checked last night and again this morning (you are 3 hours ahead of our time zone) didn’t hear back from you answering my question:

“What do you charge on average to build eCommerce websites?” (see the email below) <- I’d like to add she actually bolded this and put it in blue.

Or confirming that you even got the email letting you know that someone else (Monica) would be calling you, so I contacted another programmer. I would have emailed you after the workshop today letting you know that after not getting a response from you, I moved forward.

Again, sorry for the confusion (Monica not getting the word to not call.)

The workshop has started again… break is over.

Best of luck!
Thank you,
Kris

I”m actually really glad Kris and I won’t be working together. Clients who are in that much of a rush are generally not clients that I like to do business with. When you think about it, Kris gave me less than 3 business hours to respond to her request before she was willing to not work with me and move on. That tells me she doesn’t actually value my services but just thinks of them as a commodity – just as good if not the same as the next guy. Quite frankly Kris, I resent your attitude and find it unprofessional. Being in the service industry is tricky – but hiring a service professional can be just as tricky. The client relationship is one of give and take. Clients who only take aren’t worth keeping around. Kris – I really do wish you good luck on your project – but I also feel sorry for the programmer. Keep your head up buddy and I hope they pay well and on time!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. is the client always right or am I glad to not have this account to deal with?

The Speed of Business in 2011 is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

Stuf – What is it? Stuf is simple, yet has no boundaries. Stuf is for you home;  stuf is for your office;  stuf can be anything you want it to be.

What is Stuf? Stuf is a new custom WordPress theme designed by Wry Baby and build by a WordPress Expert.  SeeStuf.com is a very simple, yet elegant two page custom WordPress theme. Like Stuf, the site is simple, letting the imagery speak more loudly than the form.

It is really such a simple site, there isn’t too much to say about it.

Stuf, now there is a fun topic. Stuf is a Wry Baby invention and there really is no good way to describe what Stuf is. Is it a toy? Is it decor? Do you play with Stuf or is it just supposed to sit on the shelf? Apparently it is entirely up to you. Now, I happen to think Stuf is pretty neat and its going to catch on like Pokemon cards. Several MoMA’s have ordered Stuf plus it is a big hit with the early adopters who are already re-ordering more Stuf. I’m looking forward to getting my Stuf.

Stuf – an exercize in smplicity is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

WordPress Expert

CMS Themes for WordPress

Modified WordPress Theme Examples is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

I only have time for a quick post because I had to spend a bunch of time re-doing my entire blog. As a WordPress expert, I feel like I should have know better, but as I was doing some research this weekend, I cam across the domain statement from WordPress. It pretty succinctly stated that you cannot use WordPress in your domain name but you are more than welcome to use it in a sub-domain. So with a quick trip to godaddy.com and hitting up my control panel, wordpress.wp-expert-nyc.com is now up and running. A quick 301 redirect and we’re back in biz.

PS: the Thesis WordPress theme made it really easy to move the design. It has a great export feature and in conjunction with the WordPress export and import ability, the transfer was really easy.

A WordPress “No No” is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

My name is Seth and I’m a WordPress expert for hire. I specialize in custom CMS WordPress themes and eCommerce Themes for WordPress. I’m based in the New York City area but I work with clients all around the country. Take a look at the links on the right side to see live working sites I’ve built. I’m currently accepting new projects for the fall. If you are looking for a WordPress expert to work on your next web project, you can call me at 917-456-7754 or fill out the form on the contact page.

WordPress Expert uses Thesis

In case you were wondering why this site looks so basic for someone claiming to be a WordPress expert, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you. Basically I’m playing with a new developer theme called Thesis. This theme is actually a framework to build designs on. Right now, I’m made some tweaks to it to display as a very clean and simple site that focuses more on the content rather than the design. As a WordPress Expert, I feel like my clients’ sites reflect the caliber and quality of my work so well, that I prefer to show them off rather than myself. With all that said, you can see some of my other work at another WordPress  portfolio  site of mine.

Seth, a WordPress expert, on vacation.

WordPress and SEM

Just in case you were wondering if I do anything else besides work on custom WordPress themes, the answer is – yes. I also provide consulting services to those interested in developing search engine marketing strategies and how to grow an ecommerce business.  I’ve worked on over 40 different ecommerce sites spanning a huge range of products and niches. If you are just starting or have a solid base, there are always ways to improve your marketing and improve your sales.

WordPress Expert for Hire is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC

Getting "plugedin" with WordPress

One of the things I truly love about WordPress, is the huge plugin community. I’d like to start this post with a thank you to everyone in that community for all of the hard work you put in to your plugins. I often donate to plugin authors especially if I use the plugin on a commercial site and I highly encourage you to donate to your favorite author or two too. Usually even $5 is enough to make a plugin developer happy.

Enough blathering, here are my top ten favorite WordPress plugins…

#10 Advanced excerpt – I like this plugin for content management WordPress themes that utilize the excerpt as part of the design. It adds some filtering plus it adds some HTML capability if you are looking for it.

#9 Post plugin library with recent posts, similar posts and recent comments – this family of plugins makes adding “recent” stuff really easy through widgets and through short codes. I find this family of tools to be very easy to use and manipulate. Two big thumbs up. You can find this on several of my ecommerce WordPress themes like 2Jane.com.

#8 Reveal ids – Shows the post ids in the admin so you can reference the numbers without having to look at the site or the database.

#7 Socialble -  The icons are cute, it is always up-to-date and has nice features like email and print, not just social media.

#6 Google sitemap generator – Its almost shocking this isn’t just built in at this point but you need one. Make sure you have a Google Webmaster account too. Must have!

#5 Google analytics – Every site should be tracking with Google Analytics. This is a free service, so if you don’t have an account, go get one now!

#4 Robots-meta – This tool gives you great control over the robots meta tag and makes adding your site verification codes (Google<Yahoo,Bing) very easy.

#3 Raw-html – WordPress adds its own HTML to posts and pages. This plugin strips out all of the WordPress garbage and renders your post in the proper HTML.

#2 Custom Post Template – Have you ever needed three kinds of post templates? This plugin is crucial for really tweaking every post on your site and using it offers a designer/developer a lot of freedom and creativity. It does this by allowing you to create any number of post templates and by tagging them with a little bit of php (just like a page template) you can call the new template easily in the editor.

#1  HeadSpace 2 – I used to be a big fan of All in One SEO but after comparing the two, HeadSpace 2 is just so much more feature rich. It allows you to specify meta date on posts, pages and categories without having to use additional plugins. I will say this, HeadSpace is a little more “overwhelming” and if you are a total newb it can seem daunting. If you are totally baffled by HeadSpace, definitely go get All in One as something is far better than nothing.

What do you think? Were any of these helpful for you? if so, please leave a comment.

My top 10 favorite WordPress plugins is a post from: WordPress Expert for Hire in New York NYC