A popular part of that article, mainly because it led directly to action steps, was reducing the number of plugins and increasing the efficiency of the ones used.

Besides switching from the Thesis WordPress Theme to the Volatyl Framework, most everything written in that article still describes how SDavis Media is structured.

However, the framework swap and aggressive, new design tactics changed the landscape of my plugins. Here’s how.

Removing WordPress Plugins

Like most WordPress users, I have a few plugins that I refuse to operate without.

This list is different for everyone and there’s no doubt that it can change over time. Let’s review mine.

Here’s a snapshot of my plugins panel:

As you can see, there are fewer now than there were in my page speed article. Let’s first talk about why that is before I explain each plugin.

Switching Frameworks & Features

The first two plugins to go were “The OpenHook Customization Manager” and “WP-PageNavi.”

OpenHook, though it could be used for a few basic WordPress actions, was primarily created to add content to the Thesis WordPress Theme. The Volatyl Framework has a similar hook structure. However, the hooks interface is built into the Volatyl Options removing the need for a remote plugin.

WP-PageNavi was used in conjunction with custom PHP to create numbered pagination of article feeds in Thesis. Though I no longer use pagination on SDavis Media, that feature is also built into Volatyl.

Purposefully Structured Content

The next two plugins to go were “Display Widgets” and “WordPress Popular Posts.”

Not very long ago, I wrote an article about the redesign of SDavis Media and why I dropped things like sidebars and dropdown menus.

As you would expect (I hope), less space to fill means less meaningless content.

Display Widgets was used to add conditionals to every widget to determine where they displayed across the site. I could have a widget in sidebar one that only displayed on single posts and was hidden everywhere else.

WordPress Popular Posts uses article statistics like comment count and total views to make lists of your site’s most popular content. I used it as a sidebar widget, though it could be used in other areas as well.

Without sidebars, these widgets became irrelevant to me. I scrapped them.

Essential WordPress Plugins

With those plugins removed, using a new WordPress framework, and changing my design strategy, my needs changed.

A new plugin was added and has become part of my “never leave home without it” list.

WordPress SEO by Yoast

WordPress SEO by Yoast is packed full of SEO features.

The reason why I never used it before is because Thesis offered great SEO features itself. Many of the major frameworks do, including the Genesis Framework. However, Genesis does a little plugin sniffing and if WordPress SEO by Yoast is installed and activated, Genesis turns its SEO features off. Nifty.

The Volatyl Framework has the same respect for Yoast’s plugin. It goes a step further, though. Volatyl does not include any options at all.

Every WordPress theme should be optimized for search engines… period. SEO best practices are not limited to options you can turn on and off. Instead, many of the biggest SEO advantages are found right in your theme’s markup.

Volatyl focuses on a search engine optimized foundation and leaves the additional features to talented plugin developers like Yoast. Those SEO settings will stay with your WordPress install as long as the plugin is active.

There’s absolutely no reason to lose or adjust SEO settings simply because you switched front-end designs (WordPress themes).

The Original Plugins

Yoast’s plugin was the only one added to the ranks. The remaining five plugins, three of which won’t be deactivated any time soon, are still in action.

Akismet by Automattic

Not very many WordPress users respect Akismet. Why? I don’t know. It gets treated like “Hello Dolly” for some reason.

To make a long story very short, Akismet blocks the hell out of spam.

I use Akismet on all of my sites and I will continue to do so.

Jetpack by WordPress.com

Listen, I can’t get rid of this thing.

In the page speed article, I used Jetpack as a way to consolidate functionality in plugins. Jetpack does everything under the sun for your WordPress site. Though not all of it is necessary, some of it is just plain old slick.

I use Jetpack for exactly two things.

1. Jetpack’s Carousel feature powers my Portfolio. I used do_shortcode() for placing a WordPress gallery in a custom PHP page. Because it’s a WordPress gallery, having Carousel activated in Jetpack gives you a nice slideshow experience when you click on one of the gallery images.
2. The Contact Form feature is awesome. You can add contact forms to any part of your website just as easily as adding an image. Again, I created a form in a post and used its shortcode with do_shortcode() to power my custom contact page form as well as a few others.

Jetpack is not a necessary plugin. It comes with a lot of additional weight. But for me, a couple of features it provides are must-haves. For now, Jetpack stays.

W3 Total Cache

Going back to the page speed article, W3 Total Cache (or W3TC) is used to serve your site faster by caching, minifying files, and more.

I use MaxCDN to quickly deliver my content all over the world. W3TC links right up with MaxCDN for maximum speed. From what I read recently, W3TC and MaxCDN integration may have just gotten even better.

That’s it. WordPress SEO by Yoast, Akismet, Jetpack, and W3 Total Cache are my must-have plugins.

Lazy/Helper Plugins

I use two more plugins to make life a little easier on me. This stuff can be stressful sometimes, you know?

Raw HTML

The Raw HTML plugin is used to keep WordPress’ editor from turning water into wine without your consent. I started using this plugin at the arrival of WordPress 3.4. Read about it here.

Pretty Link Lite

Plain and simple, Pretty Link Lite turns ugly URLs into pretty ones. In SDavis Media’s early days, before having its own URL shortener, Pretty Link Lite was how affiliate links (and other monstrosities) were cleaned up.

Soon, I will scan every article on this site and replace the Pretty Link Lite links with shortened links from my own shortener. That’ll allow me to remove the plugin. Until then, don’t judge me.

Maintenance Mode

The last plugin I have chosen to neglect here is the Maintenance Mode plugin.

I turn it on when I am upgrading Volatyl or doing something sneaky. It blocks the site from unregistered users. I can remove it and re-install it at the drop of a dime. It deserves no attention.

What’s on your list?

The post Essential WordPress Plugins List Including New Search Engine Optimization Favorite appeared first on SDavis Media.

In HTML5, you can wrap inline elements around block elements. This means you can wrap article headings in anchor tags.

<a href="#"><h1>The Super Long Article Title</h1></a>

When you do that, the entire block level element (the heading) becomes clickable.

I do it this way on my personal sites now. Use your browser to inspect my posts with titles and play with the clickable area.

Bring on the drama, old HTML doctypers.

The post Wrap Article Headings In Anchor Tags appeared first on SDavis Media.

In short, Post Formats are used to structure articles based on their content type. Video Post Formats should highlight videos over anything else. Quote Post Formats should focus on quotes. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

Theme developers will handle how this content is structured and displayed. This is an opportunity to get creative and make publishing content fun for the user.

As of now, Standard, Image, Gallery, Link, Video, Audio, Chat, Status, Quote, and Aside will be supported. Read the Post Format descriptions.

The Volatyl Framework will support all Post Formats. They’re already being implemented. Right now, you’re reading an Aside disguised as a “Quick Snippet.”

Edit: The WordPress crew decided to leave Post Formats in the background for the 3.6 release. Smart move. Volatyl will not support Post Formats in the core (reserved for child themes) until they become default WordPress functionality.

The post Post Formats Are Coming So Get Ready appeared first on SDavis Media.

There’s something different about this redesign, though. Unlike other times, this wasn’t about how the site looks. This redesign was focused on purpose. What exactly did I want to accomplish with every single page of the site? What were my goals?

In finding answers to these questions, the new design shaped itself. All I had to do was pick the colors. Seriously.

Pages That Serve A Purpose

The first thing you’ll notice is the new homepage. No longer is it sporting the blog feed. Why? Because SDavis Media is more than just a blog.

This is a company website serving as the hub for everything I do online. That means the Volatyl Framework, Optin Agent, and any of my other projects are every bit a part of the site as the blog is.

Likewise, blogs are almost expected these days. So bringing special attention to the blog no longer makes sense to me. As a result:

• The homepage now highlights every “SDavis Media Project” displayed like a pricing/features table.
• The blog is represented by a simple link in the main menu. I think it will be searched for whether I highlight it or not.

Plus, when someone visits this site, I would rather them check out the Volatyl Framework than read my latest blog post. Being honest with myself about that completely changed my homepage approach.

Internal Pages

I have always kept my internal pages to a minimum. Besides your typical “contact,” “about,” and “subscribe” pages, I only have a few more that are specific to my design/developer profession.

What I did, though, was strip these pages of almost all site elements except for the header and footer. Each of them rocks a bold headline clearly stating its purpose and then gets right into the copy. As a result:

• No one page is clouded by the details of another page or goal of the site.
• The design of each page could be built based on the page content itself without the influence of a site-wide structure.

The simple truth is that if I’m going to have a “Contact” link in my menu, I want the chances of you contacting me to be very high when you visit that page. Otherwise, I’m just wasting space.

The Blog

Believe it or not, the blog and its templates are the only places you’ll see the actual structure of my WordPress theme on this site. Everything else is custom and purpose-driven.

The blog, however, is designed to look like a blog. That means something to visitors. Whether I call it a blog or not, when you see a list of linked article titles accompanied by an image, an excerpt, and a link to read more, you know what to expect.

There’s no reason for me to confuse you there. It is a blog so I want you to want to read the articles.

Purpose still matters, though. This is where I decided to switch things up a bit.

No Sidebars on the Blog

When you visit the main blog feed, I want you to read something… period. Your opportunity to subscribe, get in contact, see what SDavis Media is all about, or learn about the bald guy is established elsewhere. As a result:

• Besides the header and footer, you have nothing to look at but my articles.
• You will not be faced with another decision to make until you finish reading an entire article.

To get this kind of focus out of a visitor, sidebars had to go. I had to be honest with myself and accept the fact that you’re not going to subscribe, share, or do anything else for me until you trust me or my content.

Again, any attempt call you to action before then is a waste of space. As a result:

• The content is centered since most of you are centered on your computer screens (crazy… I know).
• Contrast is high. Unlike the internal pages, the blog articles do not imply an obvious task. You must read first. So making the content easily readable was key. Typography, contrast, and minimal distractions was the focus from the top to the bottom of every article.

If you make your way to the bottom of the article, you’ll see how simple things are once again. Why do I need a big presentation on why to share my content? It’s 2013. Most everyone knows what social media buttons mean, right? Of course.

So I want you to do two things here and one needs to come before the other because one forces you to leave the page while the other doesn’t.

1. Share the article that you’ve already read (crazy again, huh?) with your network.
2. Subscribe to my blog for updates like the one you just read.

Notice that I didn’t tell you about myself with an author box. Is that bad practice? Not really. But is it my goal to tell you who I am and link you to other things once you’ve finished reading my article? Not at all.

I also left out promotions. I have an entire WordPress framework to promote. I left it out because that won’t always be a logical call to action after an article. If it needs to be the call to action for an article, it will be in the article.

The only thing you can do outside of share my article or leave a comment is subscribe.

If article content is focused and the related calls to action are in the content, the aforementioned actions are the only remaining moves that make sense after a read.

They get the spotlight in a straight-forward manner.

What else is there to do on SDavis Media?

Really, what more can I ask of my visitors? Go to the page you need to perform a specific action or read the blog and let me request an action from you.

With this way of thinking, sidebars just didn’t make sense anymore. In fact, drop down menus didn’t make sense either.

The focus of the site is so sharp that only a few pages were required, removing the need to bundle them up into drop-down menus.

This approach won’t be for everyone. It’s not a foreign concept, though. Even some default WordPress themes have implied this thinking.

It may be a while before most web publishers and designers start thinking this way but I definitely think the day will come.

One page equals one goal. That’s all there is to it. What are your thoughts?

photo credit: Thomas R. Stegelmann via photopin cc

The post Do We Really Need Sidebars? The Purpose Behind A Focused Redesign appeared first on SDavis Media.

It’s simple. Products and services solve problems. Developers create automated solutions to complex problems. McDonald’s satisfies hunger (at the expense of everything good in the world). Umbrellas keep you from getting wet when it rains. If you have a problem, chances are there’s a product ready to solve it for you.

So when the question of why we need another WordPress Framework is asked, the answer lies in what problems it solves.

Let’s talk about that in regards to the Volatyl Framework.

Volatyl’s Problem Solving Style

Every software developer that creates automated solutions to technical problems has done so based on his or her interpretation of how those particular problems should be solved.

That is to say that not every solution will be the same because not every developer will see problems like the next developer.

Here, I’ll attempt to explain to you my problem solving style and why I feel Volatyl solves the right problems for a specific group of people.

Learning Web Development Languages

I would argue that the vast majority of WordPress users do not have a programming background. It’s not very hard to set up a self-hosted blog so it’s safe to say that without knowing any web development or programming languages, one can successfully launch a fully functional website.

It’s also safe to say that you won’t last very long as a website owner without hearing a few acronyms — HTML, CSS, and PHP. While there are more languages that can be used to build a website, those three will most definitely work their way into your life as a WordPress user.

I’ve noticed a unique pattern about how these languages are approached by newcomers, including myself. It usually goes something like this:

• Learn that HTML is necessary for very basic content creation as it is responsible for links, lists, headings, and many other basic content elements.
• Learn that HTML is boring by default and sometimes needs to be styled to match the look of a website… and CSS is responsible for styling HTML.
• HTML and CSS alone are perfectly capable of building a great website. But almost every “cool” thing you want to do requires a little PHP.

The first step is inevitable. At the very least, you can get away with publishing content with WordPress that doesn’t include any HTML elements besides paragraphs. But guess what? That’s still HTML.

Unless you intend to have a site as basic as Craigslist, there’s no doubt you’ll dabble in a little CSS as well. It will most likely begin with a lot of copying and pasting but it’s CSS, nonetheless.

PHP is a special one, though. You can effectively duck and dodge PHP for years and never feel like you’ve missed out on much. But that’s no fun.

This is where Volatyl comes in.

Understanding the “Why” Before the “How”

While HTML is responsible for displaying content and CSS is responsible for styling that content, PHP is a different type of ballgame.

Without going deep into the details of this powerful language, all you have to understand is that it is a server-side language. That means it’s not just about what you see on the screen. The heavy lifting is done before the content reaches your screen… on the server side.

What I’ve learned is that for most, knowing when and why to use PHP needs to be understood before knowing how to use PHP.

This is where Volatyl shines.

PHP Heavy Lifting Options

The majority of Volatyl Options are simple checkboxes that do one thing or another.

• Either activate a menu beneath your header or don’t.
• Either show an HTML single post footer beneath your articles or don’t.
• Either activate a 3-column widgetized footer or don’t.

It’s that simple. While these are things that can appear to be done with HTML in WordPress theme template files, that’s not practical, less flexible, and most users will not be able to perform these tasks.

So using PHP is an easy way to dynamically manipulate HTML based on specified conditions, resulting in tasks like the ones listed above.

With Volatyl, you’re introduced to reasons why you’d want to perform these tasks and the options necessary to make them happen. As stated before, I think these prerequisites are necessary before learning to write PHP itself.

So Who Should Use Volatyl?

If you haven’t already guessed it, Volatyl was not created for complete beginners. Beginners have certain problems that they need solved and Volatyl was not created as a solution to those problems. 

Volatyl was created for those who have learned to effectively use HTML to display content and style that content with CSS.

The reason why I targeted that audience is because you can very well sit at a level where you know HTML and CSS but don’t understand PHP for years. I’ve done it and I’ve seen many others do the same.

Volatyl handles the HTML structure for you because that’s what WordPress themes do. However, Volatyl does not handle your CSS. Why? Because my target audience already knows CSS or they are willing to use their resources to copy and paste CSS where necessary.

There is absolutely no reason for Volatyl to provide basic options that are more limiting than your ability to write the languages that you already know yourself!

Once you’ve reached that point, though, Volatyl steps in to help you get acquainted with PHP… plain and simple.

Why Volatyl Should Not Be Compared to Other Frameworks

No more than 30 minutes after its release, people immediately started mentioning Volatyl in the same sentence as other frameworks.

Cut it out.

The problems that Volatyl solves are not the same problems that other major frameworks attempt to solve.

The Genesis Framework is by far the best WordPress framework for users looking for turnkey designs built on a strong foundation. The Thesis Framework is by far the most flexible framework for users who are not interested in living within the imposed limits of WordPress’ structure and functionality.

Other frameworks also have their purposes for being what they are.

Volatyl is different for the reasons outlined in this article. If you’ve read articles of mine like A Ridiculously Helpful Guide to Creating, Styling, and Using Aweber Forms On Your Thesis Site, you already know that I’m a teacher.

I couldn’t care less about making your life easier by handing you everything you need and teaching you nothing. That’s not my style.

I’d rather you learn something every time you interact with me or one of my creations. With Volatyl and its awesome documentation, I see to it that you first understand the concepts in a ways that spark your curiosity, and then I point you in the direction needed to learn what you didn’t understand before.

Does that make sense? Let me know in the comments below.

photo credit: just.Luc via photopin cc

The post Why Volatyl? Aren’t There Enough WordPress Frameworks to Choose From? appeared first on SDavis Media.

I’m a really nice guy. I can promise you that. I’m so nice, though, that my top priority is to give you what you need and I couldn’t care less about what you want. That’s for you to manage.

Right now, I’m here to give some of you what you need. You can take it or leave it. It’s not going to change, though. Let’s do this.

Web Development and the Internet Entrepreneur

Let’s break this relationship down into three main desires when it comes to having a website created.

Assuming you’re outsourcing this task, here’s what most internet entrepreneurs are looking for:

1. Great design
2. Low price
3. Fast turnaround

That’s a perfect outsourcing scenario, right? If you can get a great website design for a low price and have it done in a reasonable amount of time, you win. Everyone is happy.

Here’s the problem, though. You will very rarely get all three of those in the same room together.

To get a great design at a low price, you can’t expect the great designer to make your job their top priority. If they do great work, and they know it, chances are they can charge a lot more money than most designers. So if your job is competing for attention with higher paying projects, the turnaround time suffers. (More on this later)

To get a low price and a fast turnaround, it’s safe to assume that the quality of work will not be that great. Sure, there are some great designers who don’t know their worth and will cheat themselves out of what they deserve. That’s not usually the case, though.

Lastly, if you want a great design with a fast turnaround, it is not unheard of to pay double or triple the normal price to make this happen. Designers sometimes sit everything else to the side and work 10+ hours a day on a design in these situations. They can do great work at a fast pace, but it’s going to cost you.

Plain and simple, you’d be lucky to get these three together in one job.

Shortcuts in the Process

Problems come about when either the client or the web developer decide to take shortcuts. Here’s the most common example I see.

The first case I mentioned was getting a great design for a low price, sacrificing a fast turnaround. Some of you may have thought to yourselves that this is possible by buying a theme or a skin. You are correct.

In a perfect world, that’s the end of it. The theme may have been beautiful, less than $100, and required no more than 30 seconds to install on your WordPress website. That’s great.

Unfortunately, this is usually more of a shortcut than a means to an end.

More often than not, the person who purchased the theme is not happy looking like everyone else. They want to customize the theme. The first question I ask myself is why they would buy a theme in the first place? Sure, if you know CSS then there’s no problem. But if that’s the case, this article isn’t directed towards you.

People buy the themes and skins because it saves them money (low cost) and then want it customized so it doesn’t look like everyone else’s (great design… preferably unique). The theme only took a few seconds to install (fast turnaround) but to finish the perfect world scenario, they need “a few small tweaks” to make it unique.

As most of you know, the tweaks are never small. They want everything to be different. The person left doing this spends more time reversing what the theme has already done than creating something new.

Because the user usually thinks this is simple work, they may even be hesitant to pay for these tweaks. Asking for “help” in a forum seems easier and free. So they do that to keep the low cost thing going. It’s so annoying.

I’m not saying that asking for help in a forum is a bad thing. That’s how many of us learn. Likewise, there are forums created specifically for that purpose, like my support forums. I’m talking about when support forums are abused. The theme works 100% as it should, but the user demands “support” for making multiple cosmetic changes. It’s a shortcut and completely their responsibility to learn and understand.

The Solution to the Madness

Not too long ago, my friend Thomas of CollegeInfoGeek.com wrote a Facebook rant about this very subject. Check it out.

In short, he says that you have no business owning a website if you plan to have no idea how it is maintained. You don’t have to be an expert, but just like with driving your car, if you can’t check oil levels or change a tire, you shouldn’t be operating the vehicle.

So, the solution to the madness would be to learn.

You don’t have to become a web designer. You don’t have to become a web developer. But you should learn a few basic things that will make life a lot easier on all of us.

1. Learn the responsibilities of each web development language
2. Learn the basic syntax of each web development language
3. Learn what it takes to use web languages to create a final website

Learn the responsibilities of each web development language. You want to do this because it’ll help you understand exactly what kind of tweak you need done. There’s nothing worse than being approached with an urgent PHP problem when it’s really one simple line of CSS that’s needed. The more focused your request, the better chance you have of getting it taken care of. You may even find a solution on your own. Yay, Google.

Learn the basic syntax of each web development language. You’d be shocked if you knew just how easy some of this stuff can be at a basic level. If you need the background of your site and the color of your links changed, that’s something you can do yourself in 20 seconds. Simply knowing the syntax of CSS (and you knew it was CSS because of the first point) leaves you with nothing left to do but filling in the blanks. Yay, Google.

Learn what it takes to use web languages to create a final website. If you understand what it takes to build a website, which is something you only have to learn once, you will never be left with a false impression of what it is you’re asking for. Just because you think it’s simple doesn’t mean it is. Just because you think your web developer is a super genius doesn’t mean solving your problem is a breeze.

You absolutely have to know what it is you’re dealing with if you want any chance of making great design, low cost, and fast turnaround live happily ever after.

If you don’t want to learn these things, that’s fine. Here are your options.

• Get a great design at a low cost… it’ll take a while, though.
• Get a great design done quickly… but it’ll cost you.
• Get a site done quickly at a low price… but don’t expect great quality.

Anything outside of those three situations calls for one thing and one thing only…

Learn something about how websites are built. Yay, Google.

photo credit: adactio via photopin cc

The post Outsource Web Development – Great Design, Low Cost, Fast Turnaround, Fairy Tales appeared first on SDavis Media.

Today, though, I’m at the mercy of nit-pickers as I’d like to discuss something non-technical for a moment. Stick with me. I’m feeling some kind of way this morning and I’d like to share my thoughts.

The first question that comes to mind is one that I had to ask myself several times before I finally did something with myself. Now, I’m asking you.

What the hell are you doing online?

As most of you know, I released my first PHP application a few days ago in the shape of a WordPress framework. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Before Volatyl, my new framework, I had accomplished a few things online but nothing that held any weight. I won’t get into the details. You can read about it in my last article if you’re interested.

After releasing Volatyl, though, I immediately felt like I had a reason to call myself a web developer, coder, or however you want to label what I do.

It didn’t matter who liked my work. It didn’t matter who used my products.

All that mattered in this context is that I shipped something important as a result of the learning and practicing I had previously done.

Before Volatyl’s release, asking myself what the hell I was doing online would send me into a motivational frenzy. I couldn’t clearly answer the question but working hard and speaking loudly about it was enough, I guess.

Does this sound familiar to you? Are you constantly busy, always motivated, but seem to have nothing to show for it? If that sounds like you, keep it real with yourself.

Crazy things happen when you STFU and do work. There’s a lot of noise in this industry but very few people are doing anything. Weird.

— Sean Davis (@SDavisMedia) March 16, 2013

Let’s shift gears.

Do you know what your next move is?

The reason why I couldn’t move forward as a developer is because I didn’t trust my own skill. I judged my skills by comparing what I could do to what others had already done.

In other words, if you’re a developer and I’m a developer, but you’ve produced a software that I don’t think I can create, I feel like I need to learn more before I can actually call myself a developer by producing something.

So the “goal” became to learn more instead of produce anything.

My next move was always to learn the next language, understand the next coding concept, or learn to use the next software that someone else had already built but most people didn’t understand.

That’s wack.

At some point, I think it’s important to stop what you’re doing and gauge your progress by applying your knowledge and resourcefulness.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article for Expert Enough titled Why You Need to Quit Demanding Perfection From Yourself.

Give it a read. If you know what your next move is, but you haven’t made it happen for the aforementioned reason or others like it, let my article get you going. I’m sure you’ll like it.

If you have no “next move,” it’s time to start thinking about it.

Call me crazy, but I see no value in having skills for the sake of having skills. That reminds me way too much of general education… but let’s not go there.

Spend some time figuring out what you want to produce and ignore everything else. It’s that simple.

If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what “they” say if you meet with temporary defeat, for “they,” perhaps, do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. ~ Napoleon Hill

Start planning your first (or next) project

Understand that when I decided to build Volatyl, I had never built a WordPress theme. I had never built a WordPress admin option. I had never written my own PHP from scratch. I had no experience in what I was about to do.

All I did was decide that it was going to happen and it was a wrap.

Before I knew it, the WordPress Codex all of a sudden made sense. Resources like tutorials on how to build options presented themselves.

As I traveled deeper into Volatyl’s development, a sort of “common sense” came over me that connected the dots between the random points of knowledge I had long before I acquired, but didn’t know how they would apply to anything bigger.

Basically, I had to start building something with an obvious end state before all of my knowledge could come together and present itself as an actual skill.

Knowledge without application is useless. ~ Thomas Edison

Excuse my language, but it’s time to stop fucking around. If you’re a developer, develop something. If you’re a designer, design something. If you’re a writer, write something.

Stop letting useless metrics like Twitter followers convince you that you’re doing something unless your actual skill is to produce social media results. Otherwise, you’re knee-deep in procrastination.

What’s next for you online?

Shoot me your ideas. Let me know if I can help.

Contrary to the watered down vibe of the blogosphere, we’re not here to feel good and sing “Kumbaya” all day. If you have a skill, prove it to yourself. You’ll be thrilled with the results. I know I am.

Leave a comment with what’s on your mind.

photo credit: anjan58 via photopin cc

The post What’s Next For You Online? What Are You Working On? What Are Your Goals? appeared first on SDavis Media.

Brace yourself, though, because this may catch you a little off guard. Let me give you the quick version first and then we’ll move into the details.

The Quick Version

SDavisMedia.com no longer uses the Thesis Theme Framework for WordPress. It uses a new, lightweight framework created by SDavis Media… also known as me. It’s called Volatyl.

Allow me to snipe a few predictable assumptions before we get started:

• I did not “leave” Thesis.
• I still build with Thesis 2 and will continue to do so.
• Yes. This is real.

Volatyl is a WordPress theme framework that runs on this site, Optin Agent, and You Set the Pace. In fact, SDavis Media has been on Volatyl for well over two weeks. That was quite ninja-like of me.

Volatyl will receive the majority of my focus moving forward and I’d love to have you along for the ride.

The Detailed Version

Thesis 1 was my original claim to “fame,” if you want to call it that. My use of Thesis is what I am most known for in this WordPress design/development subculture. Before using WordPress and Thesis, my little bit of experience was with vBulletin forums and just raw HTML/CSS websites.

When I first came to WordPress, I started using Thesis within the first few months. That was in mid-2009. Thesis 1 gave me two options and I was forced to pick one.

The Thesis Decision

I could learn how to use Thesis, which required me to better understand CSS, a little bit of HTML, and if I wanted to get really fancy, dabble in PHP.

Or… I could wave a hand to all of that and pay someone else to do everything for me.

If you know me well, you know that the second option would never happen.

So I hit the streets (Google) and started learning. Growth was pretty slow and steady until I hooked up with my buddy Alex from Kolakube and started working his support forums like a mad man.

It wasn’t long before I realized that though I was no expert, I understood more than most users of both Thesis and WordPress in general.

In summation, Thesis 1 put me in the groove of learning more about web development.

The Shift In Thinking

After just a few short months of working with Alex and gaining popularity and recognition, I realized that I could create things for people as opposed to just creating things for myself that people admired.

Alex has been great at this with his Kolakube Thesis skins, so I went for it.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you saw my shift in thinking happen when SuccessOnMyMind.com turned into SDavisMedia.com and I started doing freelance work.

That only lasted for so long before I decided freelancing was almost the same as working a J.O.B. My new goal was to somehow move behind the scenes. I needed to be able to do work one time and reap the benefits for an extended period of time.

In came Optin Agent where I sold, and still sell, optin form designs.

To be honest, this was me sticking my toes in the water to see how it felt. I was scared to release something I had created into the wild… unless it was super simple like an optin form design.

I really wanted leverage and passive income, however, there were really only a few things I could create that would get me those things… or so I thought.

Introducing Thesis 2

On October 1st of last year, Thesis 2 finally dropped and I planned to position myself as an expert early on. I was in a position to do so considering I had seen the framework do magic in person multiple times before that point.

When I received my beta copy a couple of weeks before the official release, I quickly realized that it was missing something that I really needed and hadn’t had to go without before then.

Thesis 2 didn’t force me to learn anything new like Thesis 1 did.

In my last article, I ranted about why people didn’t understand how to use Thesis 2. To me, the answer was simple. The original released required knowledge of HTML and CSS. If you didn’t know it, you were lost. I knew it, so I was fine regardless of documentation.

There was a short-lived thrill in learning the powerful new framework. Once I got it, though, I found myself wanting to do things “the hard way” because I missed the challenge. Thesis 2 streamlined development in a way that I still believe is the best WordPress has ever seen.

My problem with that was that I no longer wanted to be a freelancer. So streamlined development didn’t mean much to me. I just wanted to face coding issues that stressed me out for days at a time until I figured them out.

I was a fiend for challenge.

Again, this is when I created Optin Agent, which was on a file-based CMS called Kirby. Some of you may remember my Kirby days very well. That was me looking for a challenge. Kirby provided a challenge for just a few days and I was right back in the same boat.

Something had to change… again.

Dreams of My Own Skin/Child Theme/Framework

Believe it or not, I went through three major phases in thinking in a matter of an hour.

The first thought was that I would learn to create skins for the new Thesis 2. This was an intimidating task for me because I had never done anything so involved in PHP up to that point. After a talk with Alex, though, I decided to pull the trigger and make something happen.

When I don’t understand the journey, I depend on the destination to guide me. The problem was that Thesis 2 was still in its very early stages and there was no way to export or import custom skins just yet.

This means I couldn’t clearly see my destination and I didn’t understand the journey… so I bailed on the idea of creating a skin.

I then contacted Brian Gardner of StudioPress/Genesis after quickly deciding I’d fulfill my desires for growth by creating a child theme for Genesis. That, I could do and fully understand before starting.

No more than 30 minutes after deciding it wasn’t time to make a Thesis 2 skin just yet, Brian told me to hold off on making a Genesis child theme because the version 1.9 stylesheet was set to be released soon.

That was great advice… but the timing couldn’t have been worse for me.

In less than an hour, I found myself with a unique set of skills and nothing to show for them as I sat in the shadows of these two giants trying to find my place online.

At that very moment, I decided that I would build my own WordPress theme. I Google’d “How to build a WordPress theme” right then and there.

The journey was still foggy but I fully understood the destination. That’s all I needed.

The Volatyl Framework is Born

Volatyl was originally an experiment. Remember, my goal wasn’t to create a product at this point. My goal was to learn more by facing challenges. Building a WordPress theme took care of that for me.

Alex came to my home for Thanksgiving just a few weeks after writing my last article. We sat and talked about my plans to build a theme. It was just an idea at that point considering I knew absolutely nothing about how it was done.

I knew it would eventually happen. I didn’t know if it would be something I ever released to the public, though.

The months went by and this thing got real… fast. I quickly realized that I knew more than I had ever given myself credit for.

The WordPress Codex mixed with tutorials around the web helped me put together what I previously considered just random knowledge and skills. This thing I was creating started to take shape.

I thought about the tasks my old clients constantly asked me to do… like create a widgetized, 3-column footer. I thought to myself that if I could do it one more time for my theme, maybe I could never have to do it again.

I thought about one of my most popular articles that really earned me some attention back in the day about how to dynamically change your Thesis 1 Feature Box content based on conditionals. I figured that if I could build a way for people to do that right into my theme, I would never have to explain it in more detail again.

In other words, I realized that there were a series of problems that people faced and the little bit of success I had up to that point came from my ability to solve those problems in a way they could understand.

With that in mind, the features of Volatyl make complete sense. From the use of simple checkboxes to perform complex tasks to the built-in hooks interface with conditionals, my goal is to solve problems for people.

I got the challenge I needed, built the product that would allow me to move behind the scenes, and continued to help others as I’ve been known to do.

This is exactly where I’m supposed to be at this point.

What’s Next for SDavis Media and Volatyl?

Growth! My number one goal is not to sell a product. My goal is to continuously develop my skill set so that what I create today is better than what I created yesterday.

Volatyl is a result of that growth. Volatyl itself will receive the bulk of my attention for the foreseeable future as it is the platform on which so many more things can be built.

If you originally followed me for Thesis, I invite you to stay put… it’s as simple as that.

I consider the Thesis developers, Chris and Matt, to be my friends regardless of who built or uses what. We’ve hung out over beers more times than we’ve gathered to discuss code. So don’t go there.

If you need assistance using Thesis 2, I am still a great person to ask. I am also willing to build websites on Thesis 2 for those who specifically request that of me.

As of now, though, I’m a Volatyl man. Thanks in advance for your support!

Visit Volatyl Themes to check out the Volatyl Framework

photo credit: jonrawlinson via photopin cc

The post Why I Switched WordPress Frameworks and What it Means for the Future of SDavis Media appeared first on SDavis Media.

Some folks feel like Superman (or Superwoman) with such a powerful new tool. Others feel cheated because what was once handed to them on a silver platter now requires a baseline understanding of exactly what they’re doing.

To me, though, 95% of those who have reacted negatively to Thesis 2 have a bigger problem they need to address… and I’m about to get this thing started. Check it out.

The Preamble to My Rant

First of all, I’d like to point out a few issues that I know will appear in the comments. Not to discount those issues, but simply to say “get over it.”

Thesis 2 was released with no documentation

Got it. We were all hit with a brand new user interface with no real way of understanding how to use it. Actually, there was is a way of understanding it, but I’ll speak on that later.

The real problem with the documentation gripe is that Thesis 1 was packed full of amazing tutorials and articles about how to do just about anything with Thesis. We loved that.

So what’s better than an awesome framework with awesome documentation? An even more awesome framework with awesome documentation.

I understand your frustration… okay? But let’s get over it.

The Goodies were Promised but weren’t Delivered

Totally understandable. You were told that if you signed up early for Thesis 2, you would receive a basket of nifty gifties. It didn’t happen and you’re a little pissed about it.

While there are no excuses for this (that most people will actually care about), it happens. I assure you that the DIY Themes team did not let you down on purpose.

So I understand your issues here. But still, it’s not the end of the world (that’s in about a month and a half, I heard).

If you really want to use Thesis 2, you will… extra goodies or not. So let’s get over that (in regards to at least getting started with using the framework).

Everybody Hates Chris

I love that TV show. Meanwhile, there are a ton of character accountants keeping tallies on how many times Chris Pearson, the founder of DIY Themes, can do something to piss people off.

From complaining about his attitude in the AppSumo video (if you haven’t seen it, you’ll live) to things that happened years ago, some of you just don’t like Chris.

That’s okay. If you are not a fan of Chris the person, that’s totally your right. I don’t see how it has anything to do with Thesis, but that’s just me.

If you don’t hate him enough to stop using Thesis, get over it.

The Final Safety Net

I’m sure there will be a few people who have things to say that I couldn’t have possibly predicted. So, I’ll just say that if it doesn’t have anything to do with the specifics of Thesis itself, let’s get over it. We’re all here for Thesis, remember?

Now let’s get on with the show.

The Real Problem with Thesis 2

Thesis 2 came bundled with one big expectation of the user. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, you can’t just walk into Thesis 2 knowing absolutely nothing about webpages in general and expect to know how to use it.

The truth is that you have to know something about what you’re doing to use this advanced framework.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the root of the madness we’ve seen over the last month. People don’t know what they’re doing and it pisses them off. If they knew what they were doing, even without documentation, there would be fewer gripes and more badass websites “rocking” the Thesis Framework.

So the problem is obvious… people are confused.

I’m not here to fight with you about how the launch was conducted. I’m not here to argue with you about best business practices. I don’t get down like that.

I’m here to do one thing and one thing only… teach you how to think about webpages so you can shut your face and start using Thesis 2.

Sean’s Guide to Using Thesis 2

First, let me point out that I am not about to teach you how to drag and drop a box in the Skin Editor. Those days are over for me. Basic tutorials are great but I’m not a fish salesman. We’re about to have a fishing lesson so you can take care of yourself in the future… documentation or no documentation.

To use Thesis 2, it’s not an understanding of the user interface that you need; it’s a basic understand of webpages that is most important.

Let me share with you something that Chris told me back in July when he gave me my first sit down with Thesis 2.

He explained that WordPress has done a wonderful job of making people think that a webpage is a bunch of things that it’s not. Pages, Posts, Archives, Landing Pages, etc… all of those things can be (and should be) categorized into one general group… webpages.

There is no difference between a Page and a Post. They are both documents that are served to your browser and display content for you to read, view, click, type into, or whatever you heart desires.

Simply because one webpage allows you to leave a comment on it and another webpage doesn’t does not mean they are not the same thing.

They are… they just have different content that is structured in different ways. In WordPress, this content is structured differently depending on what the intent of the webpage is.

These different structures are called templates. A Page is a template. A Post (also called “Single”) is a template. Archives, whether they are search results, listings by category, whatever, share a template.

They are all just webpages… displaying content through predefined templates.

Stay with me here.

The Three Pillars of Webpages

Every single webpage has three dimensions, or “Pillars,” if you will. No matter what website you visit, I guarantee you can break it down into these three parts.

The Content

Content is displayed by HTML. Content is what you see on the screen. The text you’re reading right now… the logo… videos on YouTube… the stuff you look at when you’re home alone… it’s all content.

The Style

Style is handled by CSS. CSS is responsible for styling the aforementioned content. If HTML produces a link, CSS makes the link orange… and green when you hover over it. CSS styles HTML.

The Behavior

Many different languages can fall under this category. I would argue that Javascript is the most widely used behavioral language. CSS3 and its awesome animations are starting to creep into this space as well.

An example of a webpage’s behavior would be to click on an image and the image expanding to cover most of your viewport and darkening the rest of the webpage… also known as a lightbox. That’s a demonstration of an element’s behavior on a webpage.

Get it? Content, style, and behavior make up all webpages. Remember those… particularly content and style, which will be the only two I speak on from here on out.

How Content and Style Apply to Thesis 2

Now, let’s jump into the purpose of Thesis 2 and why the pillars of webpages matter so much.

If you can accept idea that a Page is no different from a Post in WordPress, and you can also understand that all webpages have content and style, the Thesis 2 user interface will start to make tons of sense to you.

The Skin Editor – HTML

When you enter the Skin Editor for Thesis 2, it may seem a little confusing. But chill… it’s not that complicated at all.

By default, you will start out on the HTML tab. As stated above, HTML is responsible for… say it with me… content!

So if there is something you expect to display on your webpage, you better believe that HTML will have something to do with it.

In this tab, the HTML tab, you will have the freedom to create a content structure for your website (this could very well be an aha! moment for some). As you can see in the above image, you’re on the HTML tab and the “Home” template is active.

What this means is you are literally creating the template for your homepage! Again, you are creating a custom template for your homepage! Should I say it again?

You are no longer stuck with a basic header that has a logo in it positioned to the left and a navigation menu above the header… juuuuust like everyone else.

No. You, the owner of this website, have the freedom to drag and drop these HTML elements wherever you would like them on… your… template.

Is this making sense?

If you stop and think about it, a Single Post in WordPress is usually a block of text followed by a block of comments and then a textarea for you to leave your own comment.

No, it’s not a special, WordPress-specific invention. It’s just a webpage with those elements arranged a certain way.

Don’t forget that.

Thesis 2 is simply trying to give you the ability to arrange those things exactly how you want them. That’s a good thing.

So if you start with the “Thesis Blank” skin, all you will see is the <body> of your of your webpage. There is no header. There is no footer. There is no content or sidebars. You just have the body of your webpage with nothing in it.

On the right side of the editor, you have a tool for creating and adding new “Boxes” to your template.

If you were to select one of the most basic of those generic boxes called a “Container,” give it a name for you to remember it by, like “Header,” and simply used the awesome drag and drop functionality to place it inside of that standalone <body> box that is on your “Home” template by default, you have now just added a new HTML element to your webpage without writing HTML.

I’m getting excited over here. I’m not excited because I didn’t have to write HTML… but more so because it used to take PHP to do that very task in WordPress and Thesis 1. Now, it doesn’t.

This is what we call “leverage.”

Now that you have a container called “Header” in on your home template, there’s still nothing to see. The HTML for the header element is ready to display content… so you need to give it some content to display.

There are certain boxes that automatically come with Thesis 2… like “Site Title.” Ladies and gentlemen, the “Site Title” box pulls your site title directly from the “Site Title” field in your WordPress Settings under the General menu.

Understand that your content is created just the same as before… with pages, posts, categories, settings, etc. Thesis 2 is now giving you complete control over how that content will be displayed.

If you were to just drag the “Site Title” box inside of the “Header” box you created, your site title will now display in your header.

You haven’t written any HTML. More importantly, you haven’t written any PHP, which was previously responsible, in Thesis 1, for manipulating that HTML for you. You don’t have to write any hooks. You don’t have to know HTML or PHP.

You just need to understand what a webpage consists of… and then drag boxes!

It’s safe to assume that most of you will not be using “Thesis Blank” at this point. So everything from here on out will assume you are using the “Thesis Classic” skin as a starting point.

The Skin Editor – CSS

The first pillar of a webpage is handled already with the contents of your custom HTML templates from the HTML tab… thanks to Thesis 2.

Now it’s time to handle the second pillar of a webpage… style. Remember, CSS is responsible for styling HTML elements. So the CSS tab is where this is done.

Listen. Don’t psych yourself out here. Ampersands and dollar signs… I know… you’re confused. Don’t be. Just stick with me here.

In Thesis 1, you had two options for using CSS.

1. You could use the Design Options and simply make selections that would change the style of your content. Whether you realize it or not, those options you chose were writing CSS for you.
2. In the custom.css file… you could write your own CSS and it would style your content just like the Design Options would.

In Thesis 2, you have the same two options. However, what has replaced the Design Options is so powerful, I can’t even describe how lucky Thesis users are.

The Custom CSS panel is just like the custom.css file… period. If you know how to write (or copy and paste) CSS,  you can do that in the Custom CSS field and it will style your content as expected.

The Packages, which are like Design Options on steriods, are where you’ll find the most leverage, though. Using them is simple (it really is).

If you look on the right side of the screen while under the CSS tab, there are “Packages” and “Variables.” Ignore the variables for now… let’s talk about packages.

Above is a screenshot of the packages in the skin I am using on this very website. Look at the names… “Site Title,” “Header,” “Body,” they should all sound familiar.

Packages are chunks of options (think Thesis 1 Design Options) that apply specifically to a certain HTML elements that you have in your templates.

In other words, Packages are CSS… and CSS styles HTML, which are your Boxes (another possible aha! moment). Get it?

Now, back in the Thesis 1 days, we may have written CSS in our custom.css file to give our website a custom background. If you remember, it probably looked something like this:

body.custom {
    background: #080 url(images/noise.png);
}

That CSS had to be written in the custom.css file. You had to know CSS (or find a place to copy it from) and have an image (like noise.png) uploaded somewhere to place in the URL for the pattern to be used as your <body> background.

Not anymore.

Have you been noticing that “Images” tab up there next to HTML and CSS? You can use that Images tab to upload images directly to your skin. Here’s the image I have uploaded for for a portion of my site that uses the noise.png pattern as a background:

Notice the relative URL for the image on the right side. It looks an awful lot like the relative URL in my CSS code above, eh?

The actual noise.png image is also displayed on the left of that screenshot. Look closely. After uploading your image, you could simply copy that relative URL to your clipboard.

Now, back over on the CSS tab, it’s time to use that image as the background pattern for our website.

This time, we don’t need to write, or even know, CSS. All we need to do is create a Package.

If you are using “Thesis Classic,” a Package for the Body is already created for you. Let’s look at it.

We’re not going to complicate this. The “Name” of your package is for you and you only. Name it something short and descriptive. This Package is for the <body> of our website… so it’s called “Body.”

The bottom field called “CSS Selector” is what the CSS uses to reference the HTML element it is responsible for styling. In this example, your site will only have one <body>. So we’re good to go.

However, if you were creating a package for a generic box that you made up, like a text box beneath your post, you would need to enter a CSS selector that specifically references that text box using the CSS Class or ID that you chose when you created the box.

Basically, the CSS Selector works exactly as you would expect CSS to work.

If the last portion makes absolutely no sense to you, or you are unfamiliar with how CSS selectors work, it may be time to hit W3Schools and learn the basics of HTML and CSS.

The middle field called “Reference” is key… name it something, again, short and descriptive. My Reference almost always matches my Name.

Those are the only three required fields of your Package.

At this point, you can save your package and it will display in the Packages area for your to go back and edit at any time.

The “Reference” field you filled out represents the link between your Package and your Box. Without placing the reference in the Skin CSS panel, regardless of your CSS Selector, the CSS will not work.

The Skin CSS panel needs to know that you are using a given Package in your skin. To let it know, place an ampersand (&) and the “Reference” value in that panel as seen in the image on the right.

That’s it. Save the CSS and your package is ready for use.

Now if you go back into your Package, you can start to use some of the other options for styling your HTML.

Notice the tabs at the top of the Package this time. Let’s look at the second one called “Options” (think Design Options… again).

Basically, there are certain things that almost always get changed (in regards to style) about particular HTML elements. Many sites don’t leave their <body> as its default background value of white.

So based on what people normally change, Thesis 2 provides a well thought out combination of options for you to change those things without writing CSS.

Let’s get that site background changed.

This picture itself is another possible aha! moment.

Remember the custom CSS we had to write for Thesis 1?

body.custom {
    background: #080 url(images/noise.png);
}

Remember the image we uploaded and copied the relative URL for?

Let that soak in for a minute and then answer this question for me, folks…

Do we need a lesson in Thesis 2 or do we need a lesson in how webpages are built?

If we know what HTML is responsible for, and we know what CSS is responsible for, is Thesis 2 really that hard to use?

As promised many times by Chris and the DIY Themes team, you do not have to be a web geek to understand how to use Thesis 2. You don’t have to know HTML, CSS, PHP or anything else to know how to use Thesis 2.

However, you do have to understand what each of those languages is used for. If you simply understand their responsibilities, Thesis 2 does the rest of the work for you.

Am I making sense?

After saving that Package and saving the CSS, your site will now have the green (#080) background with a “noisy” texture over it, just like the custom CSS would have done for Thesis 1.

So if you understood it (not just copied and pasted it) in Thesis 1, you should understand it in Thesis 2… period.

Okay, Sean, but Now What?

What I just showed you was so incredibly basic. What you have to understand is that Thesis 2 is not designed to hold your hand through WordPress anymore… and that’s a good thing.

Not everyone wants a header up top, content on the left, sidebar on the right, and a footer on the bottom. In my Thesis 1 freelance experience, the first thing people always asked me for was a custom homepage like I did for Chris Ducker.

Before, it took PHP to make this happen. Not anymore. Now all I have to do is place those HTML elements on my “Home” template and then head over to the CSS tab to style them with Packages… or even the Custom CSS panel.

So if you want a single post footer beneath your articles, you don’t need PHP anymore! All you have to do is drag a new text box to the position beneath your post box on your “Single” template!

Want a different sidebar on Pages and Single Posts? Okay. Place different sidebar boxes with different content in them on Page and Single Post templates.

It doesn’t take a plugin. It doesn’t take PHP.

Folks, is the amount leverage and flexibility you have making sense?

It’s not up to WordPress or Thesis to build it for you anymore. You have been given the freedom to go custom. Use it.

The Real Purpose of this Article

This is not a guide on how to use Thesis 2. I left out quite a few details because I will leave those things up to the DIY Themes team and community.

What I want you to take away from this is that you have not been screwed over. You have been given the most powerful framework in the history of WordPress (my opinion… and I stand firmly behind it).

Erase the word “Theme” out of your head. Let’s try to shift focus to the word “Framework.” Thesis is a framework with template building capabilities like no other.

Developers, Thesis makes your job so incredibly easy, it’s not even funny.

Quick tip for developers: As of now, I find it easier to start new projects with “Thesis Classic” and simply delete the Packages I don’t need and adjust the Variables to my liking instead of starting with “Thesis Blank.” Free code!

Beginners, take advantage of this little nudge in the back to start wrapping your head around what it is you’re doing here.

I know you’d like to believe that only the geekiest of geeks can build websites. But it’s just not true. The process is simple (at basic levels) and anyone can do it. Thesis 2 makes it even easier.

You just need to graduate from psyching yourself out to taking responsibility for the title you hold… “webmaster.”

If you do not want to be a webmaster, you can simply outsource all of your website related work to someone else. If you choose to go that route, are you really in a position to speak on Thesis 2 anyway?

Final Thoughts on Thesis 2

There are some kinks that need to be worked out. Got it. There’s no documentation at this point. Cool.

But the honest truth is that you don’t need to worry about any of that right now.

If you know how to use Thesis 2 already, you’re good to go. If you don’t know how to use it, it’s not because of the absence of documentation, it’s because you don’t understand the basics of webpages.

Dig in and play around with the features. Thesis 2 is just as amazing as a small group of us say it is. I promise.

Get the hell off of the #thesiswp hashtag talking crap and start using what you paid good money for.

The post Why You Really Don’t Know How to Use Thesis 2… and What You Need to Do About It appeared first on SDavis Media.

Not too long ago, I found myself in need of a survey management service. I had a few questions that needed answers from my readers and I felt like the best way to get those answers was to conduct a survey.

Little did I know that I would be asked to pay for monthly memberships just accomplish what I thought was a simple task. Let me tell you what happened.

Survey Monkey Tried to Stick Me for My Paper

Okay… I’m not Biggie Smalls and Survey Monkey didn’t exactly try to rob me. However, they did hit me with a unique pricing plan that had me searching for something better in life.

The free option they offer is not bad for beginners. If you intend to have only 10 questions and fewer than 100 people take the survey, you’re golden.

Otherwise, it’s time to pull out the the credit cards.

Though the pricing wasn’t horrible, they seemed to have already known exactly what I needed and they were sure to get me as close to that as possible without fully committing… before a hefty price increase.

For me, 100 participants wasn’t enough. Likewise, 10 questions just wasn’t going to get me the information that I needed.

This relationship just wasn’t going to work out.

The Search for An Alternative to Survey Monkey

I thought it was funny that there were companies in existence whose tagline was literally “The #1 Alternative to Survey Monkey.” A quick Google search for a similar long-tail keyword phrase revealed all of these companies.

The only real differences, though, were in the pricing structures. 20% cheaper sounds great but I simply don’t need to have a membership for a survey. It’s just not that important to my business yet.

So, I found something awesome to use instead.

It’s free. Questions are unlimited. Data is collected and organized for me and I didn’t even have to create a new account.

Google Docs for Surveys

You read that right. Using Google Docs, I was able to extract value from my readers and get the information I was looking for without paying a dime.

It looks like Google has started the process of Using their new App Google Drive instead of Google Docs. However, the same steps apply, though.

Want to see how I did it? (silly question… I know)

It was really easy. I had full control over everything and my readers willingly participated. Check it out.

Preparing Your Survey

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you need to know from your readers. Don’t create a survey asking dumb questions. If you don’t need to know their favorite color, don’t ask. If you do need to know their favorite color, ask them.

It’s that simple.

Ask questions that will give you the answers you need to better serve your readers in the future. Tweet This

If you are in the business of selling information products, ask questions whose answers will tell you what kind of information your readers are looking for.

For example, I am in the process of creating a membership course that teaches the average WordPress user how to build websites from scratch and build their businesses around that WordPress site.

It’s called Build WordPress Yourself and is open to anyone interested in learning how to be a self-sustaining website owner.

So, I need to know what my readers have the most problems with when it comes to maintaining their websites.

I asked questions about which web languages gave them the most trouble.

I even asked how they felt about certain things, like Search Engine Optimization, so I could tailor my content to not just their apparent needs, but the needs that they aren’t even aware of just yet.

This is easily the most important part of the process.

Write your questions down beforehand and know what it is you’re trying to get out of your readers. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time.

Also, try to categorize your questions. We’ll need those categories later on.

Creating Your Survey In Google Docs

If you’re ready to get started with the actual survey, let’s do it.

The first thing you’ll want to do is log into Google Docs (Google Drive). I’m going to make the assumption that you already have an account. Assumptions are bad but hey… most of you are already set up. If not, fix that so we can move forward.

Once you’re in there, the first thing you’ll want to do is create a new form. Click the “Create” button and select “Form” from the drop down selection as shown the image.

Just like that, you’re ready to rock and roll. It’s time to create your form.

I hope you took my advice earlier and and prepared your questions beforehand. Though you can rearrange your questions at anytime, dragging the 20th question to the 2nd position is not fun.

The first things you will want to do for your form are give it a title and write a short description revealing the purpose of your form.

Here’s the form I’m going to create while we walk through this process:

As you can see, the user interface is as simple as can be. Give your form a title and description. In that description, you are allowed to place complete links including http://.

Once that’s done, it’s time to get down to business.

First, remember those categories I told you to place your questions in during the preparation phase? We’re going to start using those now. My first category will be called General Information.

Click on the “Add Item” button in the top left corner and select to create a new “Section Header.” This is similar to how you would use headlines within a blog post.

Because there are already two sample questions on your form, this section header will populate beneath them. At this point, go ahead and delete those two sample questions by hovering over them a clicking the delete icon. We’ll create our own in just a few.

How to fill out the new section header is self-explanatory. Place your category name inside of the Header Text field. There is also a textarea for a description of the new section. This field is optional.

Once you’ve done this, you can click anywhere outside of the section header and it will save itself.

Let’s create our first question.

Again, click on the “Add Item” button to create your new question. Depending on what kind of question you’re asking, you have a number of answer structures to work with.

I’m simply going to ask how you found my blog with a multiple choice question. Immediately, I’m presented with this beauty:

Go ahead and type your question into the “Question Title” field. If necessary, you can use the “Help Text” field to elaborate on your question or give specific instructions. This field will display in smaller, lighter font beneath your main question.

If at this point you decide that you’d rather have a different answer structure than what you originally chose, you can change the “Question Type” at any time and the options beneath it will change as well. I’m sticking with multiple choice.

Multiple Choice questions give a list of possible answers with a radio button for selection. In a list of radio buttons within a form, only one selection may be chosen. If you would like to allow for more than one answer to be chosen, you’ll want question type “Checkboxes.” This type of answer structure will list the possible answers as checkboxes and more than one selection is allowed.

Beside the chosen question type, you’ll see a checkbox for the option “Go to page based on answer.” When you used the “Add Item” button to create your Section Header, there was also another option beneath the section header called “Page Break.” This allows you to create separate pages within your form.

In the event you have your form separated into pages that serve different purposes, you can use the above option to make the user’s browser automatically redirect specific page in your form based on their answer.

An example of this would be if I were to have a different set of questions based on how much experience the person taking the survey has. I would use the multiple choice answer structure and for those with over 5 years of web development experience, I would direct them to a page in my form where the survey questions are more detailed and complex.

I won’t be using that option. I like to keep things simple. So, it’s time to create my list of possible answers that the user must choose from.

To do this, I’d simply type my first possible answer into the “Option 1″ field. I’d type my second possible answer into the newly created “Option 2″ field. I’d do this until all of my possible answers have been created.

Also, because it’s not always easy to account for every possible answer, I’m also going to click the little “Add ‘Other’” link to provide a final selection where the user can type their own answer.

Lastly, you’ll want to decide if this will be a required question or not.

I would highly advise you not to make every single one of your questions required… only the important ones. Reason being, people hate taking surveys.

Every required question will have that ugly little red asterisk next to it. If someone loads your survey and they see 50 questions all displaying the red asterisk of  obligation, they might not be motivated to take your survey. So use that option carefully.

Click the “Done” button and your question is complete.

Repeat this Process with Intent

From here, all you have to do is repeat the above process until your survey is complete.

Here are a few tips to help you decide which answer structures are right for you based on the question and the answer structure abilities and restrictions.

Text

The “Text” option is nice and simple. It will allow the user to input one line of text as their answer to your survey question. This is ideal if you’re asking for something simple like an email address or a domain name.

Paragraph Text

The “Paragraph Text” option is just like the “Text” option accept it provides a textarea to type into instead of a single line input area. If we were creating a contact form, this area is where the main message would be typed into.

Multiple Choice

This option has been explained in detail already. Just remember that multiple choice questions only allow one answer. Be sure to provide all possible answers. If you are unable to, use the “Add ‘Other’” option to create a field where the user can provide their own answer.

Checkboxes

The key difference between this option and multiple choice is that the user may select more than one checkbox. This option is ideal for questions that may have just one answer, but multiple answers are possible as well. You are also allowed to use the “Add ‘Other’” option here.

Choose from a List

This option will present a drop down selection for your users. If, for instance, asked what age range the user was in, you could create options like:

• 18 years old or younger
• 19 – 25 years old
• 26 -35 years old
• 36 years old or wiser

Because you can be certain that every user will fall into at least one of those categories, creating a list makes answer the question easier for them.

Scale

You would use this option to allow a range or answers for your users based on specified parameters. For example, I could make my question a statement instead like “Green apples taste better than red apples.” Then, using the scale option, I can choose the range of answers possible (default is 1 through 5) and say that 1 is “strongly agree” and 5 is “strongly disagree.”

Here’s what the user will see:

Grid

This option is a little more complicated than the rest. You can use it to collect a large amount of related information using rows and columns. Let’s just look at a quick example I whipped up:

It’s up to you to find a reason to use this bad boy. As for me, I’ll just stick with the other options.

Section header

Again, you have the option to use these to help separate your content. Much like a blog post, most users will scan before they engage. Using section headers that grab their attention and assure them that the survey is worth their time is ideal.

Page Break

As mentioned before, you can break your survey into multiple pages. Then, when you create multiple choice questions, you can make certain answers trigger a jump to a specified page.

Publishing Your Completed Form for Use

Once you’ve created your form, all you have to do is save it. In fact, it’s probably already saved for you. Google will make sure your changes are saved every few minutes so you don’t have to worry about it.

Now that your form is complete, you may want to give it a little style. By default, the form is a simple black text over a white background. In most cases, that will suffice.

If you’re fancy, though, Google has provided a basket of themes for you to choose from with the click of a button.

Next to the “Add Item” button, you’ll see a button labeled “Theme: Plain.” Click that button and you will be taken to the built in theme options. As of now, there are 97 to choose from.

Once you’ve selected one, you’re allowed a preview of your survey with the chosen theme. If you like it, select the “Apply” option. If not, cancel it and try again. Here’s a plain and simple theme I like to use:

Distribute Your New Survey

Now that you have a theme, you’re ready to show your survey to the world… or whoever you want to take it.

By default, when someone completes your form, they will remain on the form and they will be thanked for participating. You can change what they see when they complete the form by clicking “More actions” at the top of your survey and selecting “Edit Confirmation.”

Also along the top of your survey, you’ll see options to share your survey automatically on Google Plus or in an email.

You also have the option to embed this form into your own website! All you have to do is click “More actions” and “Embed” to get the HTML code to place into your website.

By default, your form may be wider than what you want inside of your blog posts or other HTML page. You will have to change this value yourself in the embed code. The width and height dimensions are defined in the code so simply make the form width small enough to fit.

Here’s the form I just created along with you all:

The reason why I like the embed feature is because not only is it awesome, but the one pitfall of using Google Docs (Google Drive) to create surveys is that I haven’t found a way to redirect the user’s browser after they have completed the survey.

Embedding the survey on my own website allows me more control of what they do after the survey is complete.

Upon completion, the actual survey will become very short. However, the iframe will remain the height specified in the embed code.

It should be noted that the height specified in the embed code does not have to be the total height of the survey. If the height specified is shorter than the survey itself, a vertical scroll bar will be added to the survey. Now, when the survey is complete, your page won’t be full of dead space.

Awesome. Let’s observe another sharing option that I like.

Send Your Survey to Your Readers

Chances are, you already use a service like Aweber or MailChimp for your email marketing. If not, you need to fix that.

If you have chosen to embed your survey into a page or post on your website, you can simply send them a link to your post and you’re good to go.

If you didn’t embed your form, you’ll need to share it with them manually.

To do this, go to the main dashboard for your Google Docs (Google Drive) account. There, you will see all of your docs listed including the form.

Click on the link for the form and it will open up as a spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet is where your survey results will be listed. Each time someone completes the survey, their answers will be pasted into this spreadsheet automatically along with a timestamp.

Above the spreadsheet is a menu with various options. Click on “Form” and select “Go to live form” from the drop down menu.

This option will open up your completed form. The URL of that webpage is the link to your live form that you can share with others.

That’s one butt-ugly link, though.

What I did was install the Pretty Link Lite plugin to make my survey URL pretty. Now, I can simply send people to sdavismedia.com/example-survey and they can take the survey.

To take things a step further, I even created a shortlink to my form so it remained branded and was easy to remember.

Toss your link inside of an email broadcast, on your Facebook page, on Twitter, or wherever your heart desires.

All of the data will be collected and organized for you and you can view the results in a spreadsheet at any time. What’s great is that you didn’t have to pay a dime.

How awesome is that?

Let’s Get the Word Out

How to Use a Free Alternative to Survey Monkey and Extract Value from Your Readers with Surveys sdvs.me/survey

— Sean Davis (@SDavisMedia) September 9, 2012

Let me know in the comments what kind of survey you’ll be creating and let me know if you have any questions.

photo credit: Andres Rueda via photopin cc

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