Fanpage Blueprint http://fanpage-blueprint.com Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:13:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 FanpageBlueprinthttp://feedburner.google.com Fanpage Blueprint The Theme – Coming Soon http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/p8yIYi3p85g/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/09/fanpage-blueprint-the-theme-coming-soon/#comments Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:42:15 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=269 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> I just wanted to give you guys a heads up – thanks to everyone who filled out the survey here and who answered all of my stupid and annoying question regarding how they’re using WordPress for their fanpages, the “Fanpage Blueprint Theme” has been developed and is being tested by a few experienced fanpage webmasters right now. Once the testing is done and all bugs have been fixed, it will be released here, so stay tuned!

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/09/fanpage-blueprint-the-theme-coming-soon/feed/ 1 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/09/fanpage-blueprint-the-theme-coming-soon/ When Adblock Plus is screwing with your theme http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/7UlOr5padhE/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/when-adblock-plus-is-screwing-with-your-theme/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:06:28 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=248 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> I probably could have added a post about Adblock Plus in other categories as well, but after adding a couple of new fanpages to Link-Lounge.com I discovered another implication that is directly related to themes.

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, Adblock Plus for Firefox and AdBlock for Chrome are extentions or add-ons for your browser. In fact they are among the most downloaded and used add-ons – Firefox lists “758,714 weekly downloads”. (check the Adblock Plus statistics here)

These add-ons pretty much do what the name suggests: they block ads. And that they do very effectively. I have read tons of articles about them followed by heated discussions about the pros and cons. But no matter where you stand on this topic, it’s hard to ignore millions of website visitors who use them.

What’s the problem with themes?

As I said these add-ons simply don’t display anything they think is advertisement. Generally they’re very smart at that, but I discovered a few instances where they were – mislead. I came across a couple of fanpages that had been using Artisteer.com, which apparently is a generator for themes. Nothing wrong with that, however they add an unfortunate little tag: they wrap the complete content of the page in a box with the name “ads”, which basically erases the website.

I didn’t even notice that anything was missing, because I assumed these pages had temporary “coming soon” layouts. Considering how many people are using these add-ons I’m sure I’m not the only one with this “problem”.

ETA: It has been brought to my attention, that even though the sites I found with this little “issue” had been using Artisteer, this particular part of coding wasn’t generated by them.

Always double check your site/code, to make sure everything displays correctly.

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/when-adblock-plus-is-screwing-with-your-theme/feed/ 7 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/when-adblock-plus-is-screwing-with-your-theme/ Meta Tags and Search Engine Optimization http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/zBxql1kSrkk/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/meta-tags-and-search-engine-optimization/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:15:34 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=240 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]>
Wikipedia describes it as follows:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results [...]."

In easier words: how can you, as a designer and administrator, improve your site so that it will show up very high on Google's (or Yahoo's, etc) search results page? Since your fanpage is not a business this isn't super important, but it could bring you a few more visitors with just a little bit of effort.


How does this work?

Search engines use programs called spiders or crawlers to go through websites and record all the content and follow all internal and external links. Important to note is that these spiders can only read text. Everything that is put into graphics is hidden.

This is the one side of SEO that you can influence yourself - the content of your page. The other side is everything that's going on outside of your page, meaning all the backlinks you get from other websites.


Do's & Don'ts

+ Changing the <title> tag

Every one of your pages should have a different title according to the content of that page, for example you should have a structure similar to this: "Biography | Your Fanpage's Name", "A Movie Title | Filmography | Your Fanpage's Name". The title of the current site should be first. You could use a WordPress plugin for SEO to automatically handle this for you (take a look at WordPress Plugins You Should Install).

+ Using the <alt> attribute for images

You're probably not paying much attention to this, but maybe you should. As mentioned before, spiders cannot see what's on a photo, but when you add a title or description through the <alt> attribute, the spiders knows what's on the picture and can return it as a search result.

+ Permalinks or The Friendly URL

Another thing that WordPress can handle for you very easily, you just have to change the settings. By default WordPress URLs look like this: domain.com/p?=123. Now from this URL neither you, a visitor or a spider can tell what's actually on that page. Change the permalink settings and the URL will look like this: domain.com/biography. So much better!

+ Have a Sitemap

Another great way to make sure a spider will find every single part of your fanpage. Take a look at WordPress Plugins You Should Install for a plugin that will do the job for you.

+ Update your Content

Content is king and the more content you have on your fanpage the more often it will show up in the search results. Even better are regular updates, so don't underestimate the news articles on your homepage. They can give your site a push in the search engines.

- Splash Page

These are very popular among fanpages, especially when there are several languages to choose from. It's even worse when there's only a flash animation with the link embedded. That's practically a dead end for every search engine.
Instead, open with the real homepage, you know, the one that has all the content. If your page offers more than one language, you could use a very simple script to identify your visitor's preferred browser language and redirect him to the correct page (» Read more) or you can use a WordPress plugin that can handle several languages for you and adds links or a drop-down so your visitors can choose a language (for example WPML Multilingual CMS).

- Flash Menus

Much like flash animations on a splash page, menus created entirely in flash cannot be read by spiders. They can't follow the link and go deeper into your page. If you insist on flash menus, it's a good idea to add the same links as simple text links in your footer. As I mentioned before this is a vast topic and I am only giving you a few keywords here. If you would like to read a little bit more (without getting into the matter too deep), these are great articles about "SEO for Designers" you should check out:

» SEO Guide for Designers (Web Designer Wall)
» 10 SEO Rules for Designers (Just Creative Design)
» SEO for Designers (twentysix Search)


So what about those Meta Tags?

In the meta tags you can add information about your website, like title, description and keywords. Back in the old days meta tags were used by the search engines to find out what a website is about and list them accordingly. But then people started to abuse the meta tags, adding tons of keywords that had no relation to their website's content, which in the end made search results very unreliable and people were tricked into visiting websites they were not interested in.

Search engines changed a lot and do not use the meta tags anymore to identify the content. However it can't hurt to add them anyway, especially for a nice, one sentence description of your website.

Add this code into the <head> tag at the top of your pages:
<meta name="description" content="put your page description here" />

And here's why: search engines still use this description when they list your site as a search result. If such a description isn't found, it happens that the first few words from your site are used as a description instead, which might not be what you intended. (picture from Google Webmaster Central).

In addition, some directory scripts can use this description as well. For example if you want to add a link at Link-Lounge.com, you will notice the button that says "Get META Description". To test this, only enter your website URL and then hit that button. If you have correct meta tags the title and description of your website will be filled in automatically.

Even if you don't want to use this, you should still take a quick look at your tags - especially when using WordPress. Sometimes a default description is entered when installing a script, and you don't want your website's description show up as "just another WordPress blog", do you?

Take a look at these articles for more examples:

» Google's official instructions about Meta Tags
» How to use Meta Tags
]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/meta-tags-and-search-engine-optimization/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/06/meta-tags-and-search-engine-optimization/ Anatomy of a Fanpage http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/_Lk75220pUo/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/anatomy-of-a-fanpage/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 08:52:13 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=174 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> The normal fanpage usually follows a standard setup, only a few break out of the pattern. So let's take a closer look at the design used by most sites.

General Setup

A very straight-forward layout - a big header section followed by a content section with either one or two sidebars, left or right.

1) Header

The header tends to consist of a usually quite elaborate picture of the fanpage topic, blending into the background. Alternatively you'll find a cropped image to match the boxed look of the rest of the layout.

2) Welcome Box

Within the header section you'll find a little extra box, containing a "welcome to my site" blurb, links to other fanpage parts (gallery, forum, etc.), social network links, elite affiliates or the latest photos in the gallery.

3) Navigation

The navigation menu comes along either integrated into the header image or as actual text, then usually in a horizontal bar above or below the image.

4) Sidebar

Wow, this is a big part, filled with a lot of stuff. Let's see:

Welcome Blurb - if it's not in the header, this section regularly tops the sidebar.

Navigation - shows up here if it's not in the header.

Projects - upcoming, recent, out on DVD, in theater, on stage, just released, etc. Some pages use tabs for these. Are usually displayed for example with title, role, release date, photo, link to a subpage or IMDB.

Network - subsites that belong to the fanpage, can include gallery, forum, etc, but also extra sites for lyrics, icons, style, Fanlistings, special sites for tours, albums, movies, commercials, photo shoots, etc.

Social Networks - either links to or direct feeds from social networks like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc. with accounts either maintained by the fanpage admins or the celebrity himself.

Important Dates - lists upcoming events, like tour dates, TV appearances, etc.

Ads - Square/skyscraper banners or text ads may be required by the host.

Search - if the site is run using a CMS script, a search function can be easily implemented.

Latest Posts - one of the standard widgets in WordPress, a quick summary of the latest news articles.

Latest Images - usually displays 6-10 recent additions to the gallery.

Random Image - can be randomly generated from the gallery or something like a "picture of the month" picked by the administrator.

Latest Video - as the name says, a new video, either pulled from a media section or YouTube.

Newsletter - if a site is offering a newsletter, the signup box appears in the sidebar.

Poll - polls about various topics are placed in the sidebar as well.

Shout Box - or a tiny chat, usually powered by a third party software.

Affiliates - regular, elite, family, partner sites, etc. plus a link to the affiliation request form. Most sites have at least two sections of these and use custom made buttons, that match the overall layout and only display the celebrity face of the site they're linking to, some use text links or drop down menus to fit more links into the sidebar.

Spotlight Site - a partner/affiliate site that gets some special attention for a month or so, regularly illustrated with a screenshot.

Music Player - small music players or online radios are offered with related music.

Amazon Widget - or similar sections where related merchandise is offered.

Desktop Calendar - if the admin creates these they're often displayed in the sidebar.

Donation Button - a link to PayPal asking the visitor to donate some money towards the site's maintenance fees.

Link Buttons - one or two of the buttons from the "Link Us" page.

Listed At - a list of the directories the site is listed at.

Site Statistics - contains information like when the site was opened and/or last updated, the admins, who made the layout, # of hits, short disclaimer, plus all kinds of counters and site stats buttons.

5) Content

Not much to say. On the front page this section contains the news articles, beyond that it holds the page content. The front usually displays between 6 and 10 posts containing either news articles or site updates with photos or videos.

6) Advertisement

These days a fixed part on most fanpages, either as Google text ads or standard banner ads, sometimes even big squares or skyscrapers in the sidebar. Required to be placed above the fold by most free fanpage hosts.



Thoughts & Observations

We all know fanpages, and we know that a lot of them are very long and crowded. It seems that everything the site has to offer has to be displayed on the front page. While this is certainly a matter of taste, there are some other aspects to be considered, too. I'm sure you know the saying where you "don't see the forest for the trees". The more you put on the page, the less your visitors will actually see. In combination with the latest trend of very elaborate layouts, where huge graphics are placed inbetween news articles and sidebar widgets, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine what's content and what's decoration.

Try to stick with just one - either a subtle, neutral layout and more complex and colorful content, or just simple and plain text within a creative, extraodinary layout.

Other side effects of the large amounts of content on every page - or at least the front page - are long loading times for your visitors - even with fast connections -, huge bandwidth usage and browser performance issues. More and more people are using ad blockers in their browser to reduce at least a bit of loading time and distraction from the page content.

Less can be more. Think about what is really important. How you can display it so it will get noticed? Is it possible to post less news articles or post only teasers and place the rest of the content behind a "Read More" link?


What do you think? What are your observations?]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/anatomy-of-a-fanpage/feed/ 1 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/anatomy-of-a-fanpage/ Online User Behaviour You Didn’t Expect http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/HxRyzs9vf3Y/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/online-user-behaviour-you-didnt-expect/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 10:40:43 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=122 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> A while ago I printed this list of user behaviour that I found very interested, because – indeed – people aren’t always behaving the way you’d think.

People are banner blind

In studies tracking the eyes of website visitors it has been found that users literally and actively avoid areas on a website that look like adverts. Unfortunately this also means anything that is actually a part of your website, but looks like a banner or ad, will probably be ignored.

Users are not patient

Most of your visitors end up on your site, because they are looking for something specific. They usually won’t stay on your main page very long, and if they can’t find what they are looking for in a certain amount of time, they will leave and look elsewhere.

Visitors are hectic

When someone comes to your site they immdiately start looking around frantically, not paying much attention to detail, until they find what they think might be useful to them, like a navigation menu.

People don’t read

When online, people stop reading and start scanning through pages, looking for keywords, until they find what they are looking for. All the nice little things that you spent time on, like introduction texts, instructions or important notes, go unnoticed. When is the last time you read a “Welcome to my site” blurb?

Visitors are used to certain ways

We are all creatures of habit, and especially online we are used to ways how things work, how they look and where they are. You might think it’s nice and fresh and new to change things when you end up confusing your visitors.

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/online-user-behaviour-you-didnt-expect/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/online-user-behaviour-you-didnt-expect/ Fanpage Content Part 6: In General http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/VuRX9Y6gsS0/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/fanpage-content-part-6-in-general/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 09:06:47 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=92 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> And remember that everything on those lists are just the basics and someone else has already thought of them. What makes a fanpage stand out are the things that are new and exciting and interesting to read, that will keep your visitors entertained for more than a minute. The general message is: a good fanpage is nothing you can throw together in a couple of days. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication and time. A pretty layout doesn't cut it. In fact some very ugly fanpages are VERY popular simply because of the great content they provide.

Big No No's

There should be NO dead navigation links on your site - EVER. There is nothing more annoying than clicking on a link and see a blank page, a "coming soon" or a 404 error. The same goes for having a graphic navigation and just not adding links to the parts that aren't there yet.

There are really just two solutions to this: 1) if you're not done with the basic content yet, DO NOT OPEN your fanpage. If you're not done, you're not done. Wait another week before you open and spare your visitors the disappointment, 2) if you're working in WordPress or with other scripts, save those empty pages as "drafts". They will show up in your backend so you can work on them, but your visitors can't see them yet.

There are not many things more annoying (and embarrassing!) than visiting a website and having loud music suddenly blasting out of your speakers. It's even worse when you can't find the "stop" button within the next two seconds. Only choice: leave the site, close the browser. Please don't do that to your visitors! If you have videos or a music player on your site, that's great, but leave it up to your visitors to turn the music on - or not.

Great Examples

These fanpages are inspirational examples for great content (and not only that!):

» Michelle Pfeiffer - The Face - unfortunately this site was closed

» MuggleNet

» Smallville Dedication

What are your big No No's? Which outstanding fanpages do you think are worth mentioning?]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/fanpage-content-part-6-in-general/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/fanpage-content-part-6-in-general/ WordPress Themes commonly used for fanpages http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/T1DNpdh4fAY/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-themes-commonly-used-for-fanpages/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 21:30:22 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=72 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> There are a lot of fanpages out there already using WordPress as a CMS and many of them adapted free and premium themes. Here's a small collection of themes that'll do a fine job for a fanpage:



Polished

(Premium Theme by Elegant Themes)

used by PattinsonRobert.net
Info



Arthemia

(Free & Premium Theme by michaelhutagalung.com)

used by Pfeiffer, The Face, The Meadow
Info



Mimbo

(Free Theme by Darren Hoyt)

used by About Julia, IntoBackstreet.com
Info



Compositio

(Free Theme by Design Disease)

used by Keanu-Reeves.net
Info



Smashing Theme

(Free Theme by Design Disease)

used by Watch Gossip Girl
Info



Headlines

(Premium Theme by Woo Themes)

used by Lost-Media.com
Info



Zeoal

(Free Theme by WPVulpe)

used by Topher Grace Fan
Info



miniBlog

(Free Theme by ForTheLose)

used by Kaos Online
Info



Typography

(Free Theme by Acosmin)

used by Walking in Daydreams
Info



SimpleBlog

(Free Theme by Slimmity)

used by Enchanting Lady
Info



DivGrad

(Free Theme by romow.com)

used by Sweetest Goodbye
Info



Customisable

(Free Theme by Novella)

used by Graceful One
Info



Firebug

(Free Theme by Blog Oh Blog)

used by Inspirational Talent
Info



Vice

(Free Theme by Amy&Pink)

used by Alluring Smile
Info

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-themes-commonly-used-for-fanpages/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-themes-commonly-used-for-fanpages/ WordPress Plugins you could install http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/CfMU--8oVVY/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-could-install/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 21:29:55 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=70 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> Here are a couple of plugins that can improve the experience and usability for your visitors or make your life as an admin easier. If you can recommend any other useful plugins, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it here.

Ban Hammer

“Ban Hammer prevents unwanted users from registering.”
Read More

Dave’s WordPress Live Search

“As visitors type words into your WordPress site’s search box, the plugin continually queries WordPress, looking for search results that match what the user has typed so far.”
Read More

Google Analytics for WordPress

“The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and downloads.”
Read More

Raw HTML

“This plugin lets you use raw HTML or any other code in your posts. One way to use it is to wrap a part of your post in special tags (below) to prevent WordPress from converting newlines to HTML paragraphs, escaping apostrophes and so on. This is very useful if you need to add a CSS block or JavaScript to your post. RawHTML will also add some new checkboxes to the “Edit” screen that will let you disable certain WP filters on a per-post basis. “
Read More

Theme Test Drive

“Theme Test Drive WordPress plugin allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as administrator, while visitors still use the default one.”
Read More

Twitter Tools

“Twitter Tools is a plugin that creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account.”
Read More

WassUp

“WassUp is a new WordPress plugin to track your visitors in real time. It has a very readable and fancy admin console to keep tracks of your blog’s users visits.”
Read More

WP-Click-Tracker

“Adds automated link tracking to your posts and pages”
Read More

WP-PostViews

“Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed. “
Read More

WP Decoratr

“WP Decoratr can automatically find images relevant to your post content from Flickr to spice up your posts.”
Read More

WP Render Blogroll Links

“Outputs your Blogroll links to a Page or Post.”
Read More

WP Super Cache

“This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.”
Read More

WP To Top

“This plugin will add a “Back to top” link automatically to your blog. It features a smooth scrolling effect powered by the YUI library and customizable options.”
Read More

WPML Multilingual CMS

“WPML makes multilingual content management easy, just like running a site in one language.”
Read More

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-could-install/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-could-install/ WordPress Plugins you should install http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/6fioc6DqPZI/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-should-install/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 21:29:33 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=68 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> Obviously this isn’t a “must”, but these are some pretty good plugins to have for your WordPress site, fanpage or not. If you have better alternatives or additional suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

These link to the official WordPress extension database. If you’d like to use any of these, you can automatically install any plugin from within your administraton, just search for the name.

Akismet

“Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.” (This one is already installed and only needs to be activated. However you need a free WordPress.com API key. For more information and to get one, go to WordPress.com.)
Read More

All in One SEO

“Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).”
Read More

Bei Fen

“You can create backups of your complete WordPress installation, only the files, or only your WordPress database. Backups can be restored with 1 click.”
Read More

Contact Form 7

“Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.”
Read More

CyStats

“CyStats is a feature-rich statistics plugin integrated in the WordPress admin area.”
Read More

FD Feedburner Plugin

“Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com.”
Read More

Google XML Sitemaps

“This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently.”
Read More

Lightbox 2

“Used to overlay images on the current page. Features ‘auto-lightboxing’ of image links.” (Try this on the image above)
Read More

No Self Pings

“Some people really like that WordPress sends pings from your own site to your own site when you write posts; it gives them a trail of related posts. Some people do not like this behavior; it clutters up their comments. This plugin disables intra-blog pinging.”
Read More

Permalink Redirect

“This plugin makes sure you don’t have ?q=ek or other weird variables in your URL’s, by redirecting them all out.”
Read More

Search Everything

“Search Everything increases the ability of the default WordPress Search by (optionally) including every single piece of information on your site.”
Read More

TinyMCE Advanced

“This plugin adds 15 plugins to TinyMCE: Advanced HR, Advanced Image, Advanced Link, Context Menu, Emotions (Smilies), Date and Time, IESpell, Layer, Nonbreaking, Print, Search and Replace, Style, Table, Visual Characters and XHTML Extras.”
Read More

WordPress Automatic Upgrade

“WordPress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.”
Read More

WP-PageNavi

“Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress site.”
Read More

WP Captcha-Free

“WP Captcha-Free blocks automated comment spam without resorting to CAPTCHAs. Unlike using a captcha, this does not place any burden on the commenter.”
Read More

WP Maintenance Mode

“Adds a maintenance-page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenancetime. User with rights for theme-options get full access to the blog including the frontend. Activate the plugin and your blog is in maintenance-mode, works and see the frontend, only registered users with enough rights. You can use a date with a countdown for informations the visitors or set a value and unit for informations. Also you can add urls for exlude of maintenance mode.”
Read More

WP No Category Base

“As the name suggests this plugin will completely remove the mandatory ‘Category Base’ from your category permalinks ( e.g. myblog.com/category/my-category/ to myblog.com/my-category/ ).”
Read More

]]> http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-should-install/feed/ 0 http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-you-should-install/ Fanpage Content Part 5: Site Stuff http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FanpageBlueprint/~3/LtG3kmNL3PM/ http://fanpage-blueprint.com/2010/05/fanpage-content-part-5-site-stuff/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 21:27:05 +0000 Jenny http://fanpage-blueprint.com/?p=64 [ Read the Rest ... ]

]]> The mandatory section where all the organisational things are put. Interestingly enough many sites opt for separate pages called something like “Online” and “Site”, where all of the sections below could end up on either page. I still think it’s much easier to have it all on one page…


screenshot of Kate Winslet Fan

Affiliates

Explains itself. A page with all the buttons of your affiliates and a little contact form for people requesting affiliation.

Links

For some reason I find this section only rarely on fanpages. Maybe admins are afraid they could lose their visitors to a better page??? If that’s what you’re thinking, you should maybe improve your site. Aside from that I am positive that there are a lot of other related websites that your visitors might be interested in, like official movie pages, charity organisations your celebrity supports, etc.

Link Buttons

Also very easy. Small buttons in 88×31, 100×35 and 100×50 so people can link from their site to yours if they wish. Make them pretty so people will want to use them. If you can’t come up with pretty buttons yourself (and it can be tough to make something decent on such a small canvas) ask a fellow web designer or just buy a pack from a design site. They’re usually not expensive. Make sure to look at their previous work though.

About

If you want you can write a small paragaph about yourself and your site. Maybe it already has a long history, then you could also show a few screenshots of past layouts.

Contact

For some reason most administrators seem to hate the thought of being contacted, because they do not provide any way of doing so beside leaving a comment to a news article (and be honest, how often do you check those?). Not everyone trying to get in touch with you is a crazy fan sending love letters or someone who wants something from you. That will happen and is part of the business and you could just hit “delete”. But sometimes people have other reasons to contact you. It happens regularly that I want to make an admin aware of some kind of error on their site, but fail to find any way to contact them.

FAQ

In fact these are not questions people have already asked you. Most of them time these are questions you expect to get at some point, like “can you forward my letter to xxx?”.

Resources / Credit

Probably a good place to give credit to those people you submitted things or whose work you used for your site, layout, etc.

Disclaimer

All the legal stuff that you might think is necessary goes here.

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