Apart from building a few WYSIWYG websites for friends, I had no knowledge whatsoever in web design or WordPress.

The affiliate marketing course I was following suggested using Catalyst for my sites.

At the time I was using a stripped down version of Catalyst that was supplied through the course and I began the process of creating my ugly (and I mean UGLY!) affiliate websites.

The goal was to build quick, not pretty.

While I quickly learned I sucked at keyword research and getting my sites to actually convert, I also realized how much I simply loved building the websites.

Thanks to Catalyst.

What I Loved

Fortunately, I had a few friends and family members start small local businesses so I quickly volunteered to do their websites allowing myself to be much more creative with their sites as opposed to my own.

Because Catalyst had become my new BFF (best friend forever), I purchased the full version and it was absolutely the best investment I could have ever made!

I realized I mainly wanted to focus on the design of websites, so I started my local web design business, Miracon Web Design.

My main mission was to make it affordable for small businesses to have a professional-looking website. This is when Catalyst and I began our real journey together.

Superb Support

That journey has included the absolute best support I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. The Catalyst forum is truly a wealth of unending knowledge! The patience and support offered there is, from my experience, unmatched.

I also found the Dynamik skins have helped me save so much time (as I am still very green when it comes to coding!) and the Skin Developers stand behind their products with amazing support as well.

I have made some great friends from the Catalyst forum and quickly learned that everyone is as passionate to help each other as they are about designing websites.

To The Future

My client base is slowly growing, and I challenge myself with each new website I build.

I look back at my early sites (including my own! Haha!), and would give my eye teeth to have time to redo them! But at least they remind me how much I’ve learned from the Catalyst forum, how far I have come in such a short time, and how powerful Catalyst truly is!

Comparing my older sites (like my own web design one above) to one of my latest projects (My New Community), is a great example of my growth in Catalyst and also what the Dynamik skins can do for you.

I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what the Catalyst Framework and Dynamik Child Theme are capable of accomplishing in my hands.

When I see what more experienced designers have created with it, I am thrilled that I can aspire to reach that level and design incredible websites because of Catalyst!

And my goal of one day replacing my “day job” with this is more attainable than ever!

The post Case Study: Miracon Web Design appeared first on Catalyst.

Home Pages.

The first thought for most people when they think of their website, much less build a website.

Before Catalyst and the Dynamik Child Theme, they were complicated.

Unless you wanted to use the standard Blog Home Page.

Which I didn’t.

Now using the EZ Home Setup is super simple but when you are just getting started, a little assistance can get you off and running on the right foot. So I have put together three home page layouts on this page. I included a screenshot of the home page and you can download the file to import into Dynamik Options –> Import/Export.

Please keep in mind, these import files are strictly the EZ Home Layouts to get you up and running a little quicker.

Magazine Like Layout

You can always turn off the EZ Home Slider, just toggle a checkbox off and click save but many folks like full width sliders and this is the perfect way to put the Nivo Slider to use.

With a magazine layout, the goal is to feature the various topics on the home page. There are 9 widget areas to devote to the various categories of your content.

The EZ-Home Sidebar Widget is perfect for advertising as well as links to your social profiles.

Download Here

CMS Landing Page Layout

This is one I find myself using regularly for client sites, where the EZ Feature Top is used for the USP (IUnique Selling Proposition), the EZ Slider Widget Area is used to draw attention to the Client’s important pages/posts/products.

EZ Home Top, Middle, and Bottom can handle a strong call to action as well as multiple benefits for the consumer using your product or service.

Download Here

Standard Small Business Layout

Full width Slider area with three widgets in the EZ Home Top and the EZ Home Bottom.

The “meat” of that sandwich is the EZ Home Middle which is perfect for your call to action.

Download Here

Now over to you

Have any other options you want added to this page? Let us know in the comments.

Have any you want to share? Let us know in the comments.

The post Home Page — Getting Started appeared first on Catalyst.

Someone with zero tech knowhow – to design and build my blog quickly, easily, and exactly the way I wanted it:

This past June I decide to pursue a lifelong dream of starting a food business.

I had always thought of writing a cookbook or opening a restaurant.

Then one day it dawned on me that a blog would be the perfect way to fulfill my entrepreneurial food dreams.

The problem was, I knew nothing about building a website.

It didn’t take me long to find out about WordPress.

The pitch was encouraging: “…there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine.”

I got busy trying out themes.  I tried hundreds of promising free WordPress themes but nothing quite fit the bill.

Then I looked into premium themes, figuring that for a little money I could find what I was looking for.

Many themes had lovely features… and serious limitations:

• I couldn’t have 2 sidebars
• I couldn’t put an image in the header
• I couldn’t change the spacing
• or the font
• or the colors
• and so on

Yes, I’m picky.

I’m an artist and used to starting with a blank canvas and a vision. That’s what I wanted for my blog. But I didn’t want to have to learn any coding.

Was it even possible to find a theme like that?

After many a Google search I found The Catalyst Theme.

Their encouraging words: “Even with no coding experience, you can use Catalyst to build your own fully-functional website from the ground up.”

I decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Here’s why:

GOOD PEOPLE

Catalyst looked good so I emailed “The Catalyst Team” to see if someone like me, with no coding experience, could use it to design a website. I got an immediate and thoughtful response from the Team – actually the developer, himself – Eric Hamm.

GREAT TEACHING TOOLS

Catalyst comes with extensive tutorials and screencasts that even I – someone with no tech know-how – could easily follow and learn from.

EXCELLENT SUPPORT

I have never felt frustrated when I’ve needed support.  There is always access to help and quick answers to my questions and problems.

HAPPY CUSTOMER

I am so happy with my blog!I have been able to get it just the way I want it down to the littlest detail.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

If I hadn’t discovered Catalyst, I would have spent thousands to hire a design firm.  Glad I didn’t have to go that route!

I’M IN GOOD HANDS

I want to focus on my side of the business – cooking, photography, writing, and recipes.  It’s great to have a solid, reputable company behind me with people like Eric Hamm and JustMe from the forums, who are highly competent and determined to help their customers in every way possible.

The post How the Catalyst theme enabled me appeared first on Catalyst.

Thank You

We received close to 55 submitted surveys, with the vast majority of those surveys offering very in depth and complete feedback on getting started with catalyst and then using catalyst to build a website(s).

We also had 11 brave souls, kind enough, to share their thoughts one to one with Jason on Skype. These conversations were extremely helpful and while Jason tried to keep within a 30 minute time limit for the Skype calls, most calls ended up over lasting closer to an hour. With four calls lasting more than an hour!

Winners

Each user that completed the survey and included their email address for notification of winning, was entered into the drawing. Each of the community members kind enough to speak one-on-one was entered twice. This resulted in a total of 76 entries from which three winners were drawn for the one hour Skype session with Jason Hobbs.

1. Sean Johnson

2. Carroll Nabors

3. Rene Whitlock

What’s Next?

Were are working on entirely new documentation and onboarding processes for Catalyst Users and hope to start rolling out the new tools by the end of February, at the latest. We will email the catalyst community as we roll the new documentation and such out, as well as post it here on the blog.

The post Community Thanks and 3 Winners appeared first on Catalyst.

And although this may sound like hard work, it’s far better to have a client that can tell you exactly what they want than one that has no idea.

But how are you going to build that website?

The traditional option is editing or rebuilding a pre-existing theme in a code editor to suit a client’s exact requirements. But rarely an enjoyable process, and can take a lot of PHP and CSS knowledge and front and back-end testing if you’re to end up with something robust, updatable, scalable, plug-in friendly and secure.

Having a good understanding of Catalyst and the Dynamik child theme gives us the option of re-building the design the client likes with the extra functionality, layouts or edits that they require to suit their project in FAR less time. And it rarely takes any programming at all.

Sometimes a few lines of CSS may be required, but the front-end CSS builder can help you through assembling the styling and showing your results in real time BEFORE you commit to saving your changes.

Here, in three short videos we run through basic site setup, building the main structure with EZ-Home options and custom widget areas, pulling content into the static homepage with the Catalyst Excerpt Widget, and basic and advanced styling with Dynamik and the front end CSS builder.

You’ll see in 40 minutes how we can re-create a theme design ready for delivery or, as a great starting point to further modify the design to suit your or your clients specific needs.

Even if this minimal chic design does not suit your needs, the videos provide a blueprint for a workflow to build a huge variety of custom themes as well as some great techniques and tips to get you using Catalyst and Dynamik more like a pro.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

The small amount of custom CSS used in the project is available in the Catalyst Community here.

The post From Idea to Website With Catalyst appeared first on Catalyst.

Got a complaint? We want to hear it.

Think we’re all that and a bag of chips?

Let us know…and then send us the chips.

At Catalyst, we’re not content with simply throwing a versatile website builder out into the Internet waters without knowing what makes it sink or swim.

And that’s why we need your help!

We want to know how Catalyst has changed your corner of the Internet and are relying on your honesty to help us work out the kinks to provide our customers with the best documentation and on-boarding process on the market.

Our Catalyst community is vital to us, and making you guys happy is why we’re in this game. Well, that and the chips.

Sounds Great, But What Are We Talking Here?

Surveys and skype chats where you tell us whats what with getting started with and then using Catalyst, that’s what.

Surveys

Share your insights with our 4 question survey to help us provide the best possible documentation and on-boarding process.

Skype Chats

Share your insights with Jason via a 30min Skype chat. These are 30min blocks of time engaged in a Skype Call (not video) with Jason to share your insights on getting started with Catalyst and building website(s) with Catalyst.

So What’s In It For Me, Bub?

Glad you asked! We know you’re busy whittling away, making your website exactly what you need it to be, so, we have a little incentive for you.

Survey

Everyone kind enough to fill out the survey and include a valid email address for drawing and notification purposes, will be entered to win 1 of 3 one-hour blocks of Jason’s time to do with as you wish. On Skype.

How can Jason help during that hour consultation?

• Catalyst Training
• Website tweaks
• Website SEO Q&A
• Small Business Marketing Q&A
• Local SEO Reports, evaluations etc

30min Skype Chat

Choice of Premium Dynamik Skin, Free

All participants, who schedule and complete a Skype chat with Jason, will receive their choice of premium Dynamik Skin, free of charge as a thank you for taking the time to help us improve the documentation and on-boarding process.

Additional Entry for 1hour Consultation Drawings

Yep, instead of a single entry, receive 2 entries, thus doubling your chances of winning a 1hr consultation in addition to your Premium Dynamik Skin.

Drawing

Drawing will be held January 25, 2013 at 9amET.

Okay, Say I’m on Board? Now What?

Simple.

Survey is here.

I have closed the Skype Call registration, thank you so much to everyone for the amazing feedback, very excited to synthesize these learnings into some great tools for onboarding and documentation for the Catalyst Community.

1/25/13 from Jason:

I’m using a 3rd party application to handle the drawing for the 3 winners of the 1-Hour Skype Sessions, as soon as I hear from their support team and get the drawing completed.  My apologies for the delay. I wanted to use an impartial 3rd party to do the drawing and email the winners.  This choice may make it take a wee bit longer, however I will get winners chosen and the 1-Hour Skype sessions scheduled as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Jason

The post Calling All Community Members appeared first on Catalyst.

Lets begin by explaining what Google Analytics is and why you want it tracking your website visits etc.

Most importantly, Google Analytics helps you answer some important questions, such as:

• How many visitors stop by your website each hour, day, week, month, and year.
• Which page of your website they use to enter your website using (Landing Page)
• How they found your website, be it social media link or searching for a phrase on Google
• How long they stayed on your website
• How many pages of your website they visited
• What part of the world they came from.

This is all very useful information for getting the most from your website.  Long gone are the days of throwing a static website up to, get your name out there and hoping folks find you and that some of them even need what you have to offer.

It’s Free, one of Google’s helpful tools to make the Internet more inviting to your small business or non-profit organization.

To Setup A Google Analytics Account

Sign up for a Free Account with Google Analytics here and follow the instructions.  The domain you are creating the account for is the url you will be tracking.  For instance, dynamiktheme.com, catalysttheme.com, and cobaltapps.com.

Once your account is active:

Click the Admin button on the right side of the orange bar

 Now look in the middle column and find Tracking Code Tab, click that. 

Now, the tracking code tab offers two options, first, choose your situation, are you tracking a single domain?

Most will be tracking the one website, or if you have subdomains that you want to track along with your main domain, choose that option here.

Now you are ready to grab your tracking code and take it to your website.

Grab the complete snippet and head over to your website.  Be sure to login to your WordPress backend, then look into the left hand column for the Genesis Options area and click on Theme Settings.

Scroll down to the bottom of that page and you will see the area for easily adding scripts etc to the Header and the Footer areas.

Paste your analytics code snippet in there and then click Save Settings.

Now, head back over to your Google Analytics account, the Tracking Code tab in order to verify your data is being received from your website.

Now you are ready for visitors and just as important is that you will be able to learn from your analytics data.

The post How To Add Google Analytics To Your Site appeared first on Catalyst.

In addition to the multitude of design options that allow you to style the appearance of virtually every item on a site, there are also extensive options for the more structural aspects of the site’s design.

Flexible Page Layouts

The options provided by Catalyst for the structural design aspects include things such as unique Page Layouts for each individual Page or Post, each individual Category or Tag Archive Page, and indeed for each individual Author Archive Page.

Alternatively of course, you can specify a Page Layout to be used for all Category Archives, or all Author Archives. The degree of granularity, from site wide to individual Post/Page is up to you.

Not only does Catalyst Theme then allow you to specify different (or the same – it’s up to you!) Sidebar and Content Pane arrangements for each individual Page Layout, but the widths for each Sidebar and Content Pane in each layout can be individually specified too.

Catalyst Theme then takes things a stage further by allowing you to create Custom Widget Areas and Custom Hook Boxes and assign them to specific Page Layouts only.

This means that a Sidebar on one Page Layout, say a Category Archive Page for “Blue Whats-its” can have sidebar related widget content specific to “Blue What-sits”.

Likewise a Sidebar for a Category Archive Page for “Red Whats-its” can have its own specific widget based content.

Removing Page Elements

Such is the flexibility of Catalyst Theme, that you also have complete (and easy) control of other components on a Page too.

Let’s say you have some content that you want to display in glorious isolation without any distraction around it, perhaps a graphic item that you just want people to click on, and you don’t want the Navigation Menu to get in the way, or the Header or Footer for the site even!

Here’s a Page (made for this example) as it would normally appear:

Example Page with Header, Navbar and Footer

To remove the unwanted elements, we just go to the Hide Tab of settings in Dynamik Options and select which elements we want to remove for the Page concerned as shown below (Catalyst even provides a handy list of Page IDs and some of the major elements as examples at the bottom of the Hide Options page).

Dynamik Hide Options

After we’ve saved those changes, the result is a nice splash screen like this…

Same Page with Header, Navbar and Footer Removed

This is just another example of a feature that typifies the flexibility provided by Catalyst Theme and shows how typically easy it is to implement what you want!

Have fun

David

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme.

Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

The post Flexible Page Content appeared first on Catalyst.

In this week’s post I’m going to cover some additional user related options provided by Catalyst Theme.

User/Author Biographical Information

Providing background and biographical information about the author(s) of the content on your site can be a powerful aid to increasing its authority and how it is perceived by visitors who view it.

There are three significant areas where such biographical information can be provided.

The first is at the end of a Post.

A field called Biographical Info is provided for each WordPress User Profile (in WordPress > Users > ‘User’ > About Yourself).

User Profile Biographical Info

The content provided here will be displayed at the end of each Post written by that Author.

This Author Information Box can be fully styled for added visual impact using the Author Options in Dynamik as shown below.

The text for the link at the end of the bio box can also be set using the Post Author Box Link Text in the Catalyst Core Options > Content > Content Meta Options area.

The Author Information Box – After Styling in Dynamik

As well as, or instead of, displaying author information at the end of every Post, Catalyst also provides an option to provide an Author Archive Description at the head of each Author’s Archive page (i.e. at the head of all the Posts written by a particular author).

Catalyst Author Archive Options

The option for this can also be found just underneath the Biographical Info fields mentioned above in WordPress > Users > ‘User’ > Catalyst Author Archive Options.

The result immediately conveys information about the author to the visitor. Being near the top of the page content, this also provides a useful opportunity to include relevant keywords about the author, and their field of expertise, for additional search engine benefit.

Author Archive Page Information

The third option I’ll cover in this week’s post is the Catalyst Author Bio Widget.

This widget can be found in the WordPress > Appearance > Widgets and can be included in any widget area you wish – such as a Sidebar, EZ Widget area or Custom Widget Area.

This widget will display the same text as the Biographical Information field in the selected user’s profile – unless an alternative description is provided in the text box in this widget.

Catalyst Author Bio Widget

If desired this widget can also be used to include a link to another Page, and so provide more details about that specific user (perhaps a full page biography or resume etc), along with the user’s Gravator etc.

Here we’ve included it in an EZ Feature Top Widget Area (the right hand widget in this case) on the Homepage in this instance.

Catalyst Author Bio Widget Included in an EZ Feature Top Widget Area

As is so often the case with most things in Catalyst Theme, the options for providing author’s biographical information are comprehensively catered for and provide plenty of choice for how you might wish to implement this useful feature.

Have fun

David

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum. David also has a site with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

The post Including User Biographical Information appeared first on Catalyst.

When a WordPress site is set up and installed, the initial user account that is automatically created is that of the Administrator account (As an aside – for security purposes, it’s always a good idea to set a different login name than Admin for this account, even if Admin is the name that you choose to be publicly displayed in the Post Byline underneath each Post).

In many instances the website owner is the only user of the site and this will be the only account required. They can manage, develop and design the site as they see fit, and are responsible for all the content that is published on it.

Their account settings therefore allow them access to all WordPress and Catalyst Theme features and functionality, including the Dynamik Child Theme options for design and styling etc.

Multiple Users and Roles

Many sites, however, require additional users. These may be other people within your own organization, or external to it, and it is likely you will want to limit what they have access to with regards to management of functionality on the site.

WordPress itself provides five main options for different user ‘Roles’ – ranging from the Administrator  to Subscriber levels and which have different capabilities. In brief they are:

• Administrator – has access to all admin features (as you’d maybe expect!)
• Editor – Can publish and manage Posts/Pages and other users’ Posts
• Author – Can publish and manage their own Posts only
• Contributor – Can write and manage their own Posts, but not publish them
• Subscriber – Can only manage their own profile

Each of these is fairly self explanatory and these options provide a good degree of granularity for user management.

Catalyst User Options

Additionally, with Catalyst Theme though, there is the ability to disable access to each of the main Catalyst Admin Pages.

Catalyst User Options

These can be set on a per user basis in the WordPress > Users menu by editing each particular user’s profile.

While users with WordPress Roles other than that of Administrator wouldn’t have access to the Catalyst Admin Pages anyway, this additional functionality allows you to restrict such access for each Administrator you have set up for the site.

This therefore enables you to have multiple administrators of the site and restrict which ones have access to each of the Catalyst Admin Pages.

For example, you can have an Administrator who can perform WordPress site management functions such as updating Plugins or WordPress itself, but have no access to administering Catalyst Theme.

As another example, they also allow you to have an Administrator level user who can manage and change aspects of the site such as SEO settings, how Content is laid out, add Google Analytic Scripts etc, but not be able to change any of the Dynamik Child Theme design and styling settings which control the look and feel of the site.

Catalyst Menus for Different User Option Settings

Just another example of a feature that typifies the flexibility provided by Catalyst Theme!

Have fun

David

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme owners can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.

David also has a site with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com

The post Controlling User Options with WordPress and Catalyst appeared first on Catalyst.