I LOVE the StudioPress Genesis framework and their plethora of beautiful child themes. What I HATE is seeing folks lose potential commissions because they don’t bother to change out the footer links which go straight to StudioPress!

You can make money on those links!

In the following video I show you how to change your StudioPress theme footer links to affiliate links via their affiliate program on ShareaSale.

Here is the code that I use in my footer:

<div>
<p><a href="#wrap" rel="nofollow">Return to top of page</a></p>
</div>

<div>
<p>Copyright &copy; 2010  &middot; <a href="http://rosalindgardner.com/go/studiopress" title="Genesis Theme Framework">Genesis Theme Framework</a> by <a href="http://rosalindgardner.com/go/studiopress">StudioPress</a>
</p>
</div>


Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

After sporting the Thesis theme by DIYThemes on RosalindGardner.com for several months, I switched back to using a StudioPress theme on that blog.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Thesis. I do. It’s an excellent theme and I still highly recommend it to those looking for a professional theme for WordPress.

Once you get past the learning curve (which all themes have), manipulating Thesis is pretty straightforward. I especially liked the number of design and SEO tweaks available within the options. The Thesis OpenHooks plugin turned out to be a big help too.

So, why did I switch back to StudioPress?

Well, after writing “How Many Blogs?“, I realized that working with too many themes was almost the same as working with too many blogs.

With only one exception (AffiliateBloggerPRO),  all my other blogs were sporting StudioPress themes.

So, instead of researching, writing and marketing – activities that are significantly more important (and lucrative) to a professional blogger – I felt I was wasting precious time tweaking every time an update for either theme was released.

Not only that, but moving back and forth from one theme to another always involved having to take time to ‘stop and think’ about how that particular theme worked.

On the other hand, when you use only one theme across all your blogs, there is no transition time. You’re always working with the same theme and SEO options and all the upgrades can be done at once when a theme or framework update becomes available.

So, my suggestion is this.

Unless you work for others installing and tweaking out themes for WordPress, use a single theme framework for each your blogs… whichever theme that might be – StudioPress, Thesis, Woo or Socrates.

P.S. The new theme on RosalindGardner isn’t quite finished yet… I still have to tweak it out a little with a nice header.

Awhile back I introduced you to Justin Parr, creator of the Doglirious site (shown below)

Justin built his site on a WordPress blog platforms using the StudioPress themes for WordPress. Doglirious is based on the Lifestyle theme, (as does NPT) and MyEnergyPal uses the StudioPress Church theme. Here is how they appear ‘out of the box’.

As you can see, each theme was modified to the webmaster’s specifications with changes to overall color scheme, the header graphic, bullet list icons, pictures included in the ‘Featured Section’ near the top of the page and other design elements.

Doglirious belongs to Justin and Michelle, and and Justin did all the design work for that one as well as a number of other blogs – all equally as gorgeous. I did the theme customization for MyEnergyPal, and the logo was sourced out to 99Designs by my partner in the project.

Can a Newbie Get Similar Results?

Absolutely! Installing a WordPress blog takes only a minute when you use SimpleScripts (offered by BlueHost hosting) and every StudioPress theme ‘out of the box’ is beautiful.

While it is possible for a new webmaster to to modify these themes by availing themselves of help from the StudioPress forums and/or other online design and blogging support communities, there is a somewhat steep learning curve to the process which can take considerable time to absorb and master.

And you’ll need a few things to make the site your own, including:

1. A Logo (Header Graphic)
2. Featured Content Gallery plugin
3. Pictures/Graphics to put in the Featured Content Gallery
4. Color scheme customization to match your logo

And although I always encourage new webmasters to learn and do as much as they can with their own blogs, learning how to design graphic elements isn’t a compulsory part of that mix — especially not if your mission is to get your site up and making money as fast as possible.

But Paying $5K for a Custom Site is Ludicrous!

Unfortunately, I’ve spoken with WAY too many people who have literally spent a fortune having a site designed for them – often to the tune of $5,000 for 3 – 10 page sites – and then they still don’t even know how to change a link.

It drives me nuts to hear these stories, because it is completely unecessary to spend that kind of money, especially on a site that you can’t operate. Learning how to post content to a blog is easy as pie to do, and with continual improvements to WordPress, the process just keeps getting easier.

The WordPress interface is super intuitive, but just in case you want to go deeper into the functionality, there are plenty of blogging instruction videos available that will teach you how to work your blog. So, there’s absolutely NO reason why you should be held hostage by a webmaster on whom you must depend to make all your site changes.

The StudioPress themes are beautifully designed and they’re only $59.95 per template – so why in the world would anyone pay $5000 for a website — not to mention KEEP paying that webmaster to insert content and/or links?

The thought strikes me as preposterous.

There IS a happy medium, however. One that won’t cost you an arm and a leg — and nowhere close to 5,000, or $3,000 or even $1,000.

Justin’s Design Tutorials

Justin Parr has just finished a series of video tutorials that show you EXACTLY how he created Doglirious using the Studio Press lifestyle theme. As our guest blogger DinerDave is quoted saying about Justin’s help..

“I love that I can do this on my own. I’ve learned more working with you than I have in the last 4 years working with my last web developer.”

Debora Humphries, another happy user of Justin’s system, just left the following comment on this blog:

“I do have Justin’s package and I absolutely love it. Best money I have ever invested for training. The man is really talented at clearly explaining and demonstrating a step-by-step method on how to customize the “Lifestyle StudioPress Theme.”

And now you can learn how to create a beautiful blog with Justin’s video tutorials at  WordPress in a Day.

Here is a question that I received from one of our readers…

Hi Rosalind,

I’m really enjoying your new book, “Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich“. I’m an experienced and somewhat successful dating affiliate myself, and I still have been able to find lots of useful information and tips in your latest book. Thank you so much for sharing!

I did want to mention that I believe there’s a small typo on page 113 – second paragraph:

“the left side is read before the right side. Therefore, place your primary navigation on the RIGHT side” (Shouldn’t it be placed on the left side?). Just wanted to mention this before your book goes into another printing.

Very enjoyable book. Thanks again for being so helpful and generous with sharing your knowledge!

Kind Regards,

Rhonda Ray

Thanks very kind for your question, Rhonda, and no, that wasn’t a typo.

From a reader’s perspective, I prefer to see content on the left and navigation on the right and that has certainly been the trend in site design for a number of years now.

Too, you want to place site navigation on the right hand side of your blog (or HTML pages) so that search engines read your site content before they get to the often long and always repeated site navigation links.

However, the simplest justification I can give for this is the way WordPress blogs and most WordPress themes are structured out of the box, with navigation on the right side. (see screenshot below of my 101Date.com homepage with it’s StudioPress theme loaded and the primary navigation outlined in red).

WordPress blogs are known for their search-engine friendliness, which is due in most part to their dynamic nature.

However, because the WordPress designers are also so search engine savvy, I trust that their choice to typically place navigation on the right side has a great deal to do with enhanced visibility to the engines.

So now I have a hosting service, I’ve done my market research, and I’ve written pertinent content based on that research for DinerDave.com. Now it’s time to design the layout and look of the site. Once again I turn to Ros for recommendations on who could create a professional looking blog.

WHO Will Design DinerDave.com?

I reviewed dozens of WordPress template sites and became frustrated that I could not find the perfect “skin” for DinerDave.com. Then I read a case study on Doglirious.com in the latest revision of the Super Affiliate Handbook (Feb 2009). I was very impressed with the layout and functionality of this particular site and knew right then and there that I wanted the EXACT same layout for DinerDave.com! Well, as fate would have it, one month later Ros recommended Justin Parr, the creator of Doglirious.com, to create these beautiful StudioPress theme sites for her subscribers. After checking out Justin’s portfolio of work on Juscott.com and the templates available on Studiopress.com I was hooked! I made up my mind that I would use Justin to create the Diner Dave website, rather than trying to spend hours trying to learn CSS, basic design and editing templates.

Selecting a Theme and Design Package

That afternoon I purchased the same StudioPress “Lifestyles” theme that Justin used to create Doglirious.com (with the bonus “Streamline” theme for free…I can use that for another website later). I uploaded this theme through NetProfitsToday link and selected the Gold Package from the design services page on NPT. I did so because I wanted a strong foundation for the Diner Dave site and that included all the advanced plug-ins and features included in the Gold Package for email marketing, social bookmarking, tag cloud, etc…

Ros said in her recommendation for Justin’s design services, it is “preposterous to pay $5000 to have someone create a website” and then not know how to change links, upload pics, or perform any other simple updates. I agree! As someone who has actually spent thousands of dollars to create a static website I’m here to tell you that $999 for Justin’s Gold Package I selected is a steal! It is possible to find web designers on Elance.com or Rentacoder.com to create WordPress sites for the same price or maybe a little lower, but I prefer to hire a person that is recommended by someone I trust (Ros) AND that guarantees their work.

Creating the Logo

Creating a logo was the only service offered by Justin that I did not select. I created the logo a few weeks before Ros’ post on Justin’s design services. I reviewed several logo creation sites like 99designs.com before selecting logoloft.com to create the Diner Dave logo. The main reason I selected them was because of their impressive portfolio of work AND they were running a $99 special on logo creation. I contacted them and described exactly what I wanted. After a few revisions, I received the finalized Diner Dave logo. I was very pleased with the results! Now it was time to get started on the site.

Justin Works his Magic!

After contacting Justin via email we set up a phone and online meeting (via Yugma.com) to discuss how I would like the design and layout of DinerDave.com to look. I already knew what content I would be adding to the site…it was just a matter of organizing it in a website for ease of use and arranging merchant offers on each of the pages. I started by creating a map of the home page on an Excel spreadsheet (because I couldn’t email him a cocktail napkin!). Here is a copy of that spreadsheet:

After discussing my vision of the layout and design of DinerDave.com, Justin had a checklist of items for us to cover before he started in on the design work. The list included:

• Color scheme – I chose red, a color that invokes passion. Plus, I wanted to make sure the color scheme matched my logo. He matched the primary and secondary colors to those displayed on the site.
• Layout – Obviously, I wanted to place the AWeber email / RSS opt-in collection form at the top right of every page. I know from experience that I will make 100x more money on merchant offers with my email subscribers than random visitors to the site. I also needed to make sure that my revenue producing merchant offers/reviews were featured close to the top of the page (ie the “Diner Dave Daily Deals”). I relied on Justin’s recommendations to determine where to place the remaining content.
• Google ads – There are several locations in the Lifestyles template where you can place Google ads, but I decided I only wanted one area in the right column for these ads. I really want the emphasis of Diner Dave to be content over ads.
• Category and tag selection – Once again I chose the categories I selected based on my market research. The categories are based on what people are looking for on google and other search engines: restaurant coupons, restaurant gift certificates, restaurant reviews, etc… Moreover, I already had content for each of these major categories.
• Navigation menus – I selected a 2 tier navigation menu to give visitors a broad overview of the dining out tips and advice featured on the site. The primary navigation bar contains broad topics: tips and advice, web discounts, the about us page, and contests to win a free lunch (a popular concept I started with DinerDeals.com). The secondary navigation bar lists the most popular categories with my merchant offers – THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT to monetize the site.
• Pictures and graphics – Justin was a huge help when it came to selecting the perfect pictures for the featured article box on the home page! He also taught me how to find and download these pictures myself using sites like Dreamstime, iStockPhoto, and Stockxchange. Plus, he advised me on how to use tools like SnagIt and Picnik.com to capture and edit screen shots, photos, tables, etc..
• Plug-ins – I added the SEO All-in-One pack and Ninja Affiliate Links to my admin section to optimize the site for search engines and to cloak affiliate links.

After my data dump, a few dozen emails back and forth, and a couple more phone conversations, here is the result of our collaberation (drumroll please…..):

I can tell you that one of the great things about dealing with Justin is that he will patiently walk you through how to use WordPress to create and edit posts, create pages, optimize your site for search engines, create categories, and everything you need to know to become a self sufficient blogger. I HIGHLY recommend him to anyone that is looking to create a new website or transfer an existing website to WordPress!

Getting the Word Out

Now it’s time to let my DinerDeals.com subscribers know about the NEW DinerDave.com! Look for the next post that deals with how to motivate existing subscribers to join my new list.

Quick recap: I now have the domain name DinerDave.com, uploaded the basic wordpress template from my bluehost account, and I’ve done the market research to determine what my target readers would be searching for online.

So what’s next?

After speaking with Ros and posting a few questions in the NPT forum, I was advised to write at least 7 posts and publish them to DinerDave.com BEFORE enhancing my site with the StudioPress Lifestyles Theme. Ros says that by having 7 posts to populate the Lifestyles template it fills out the page, post, and category hierarchies more efficiently.

So now it’s time for the meat and potatoes of DinerDave! I need to write some content based on the most popular restaurant and dining related keywords (see last post DinerDave Does Market Research to see what those keywords are)!

Step 1 – Finding Content

I have a head start when it comes to FINDING content to write about in that I read the “National Restaurant Association Smart Briefs” at least twice a week to help me in my day job as a restaurant wine sales rep. This email newsletter is jam-packed with tons of great articles on dining out and restaurant events and specials.

I also regularly check my Google Alerts that I set up with the following words: restaurant coupons, restaurant discounts, restaurant specials, restaurant gift certificates, restaurant reviews, restaurant reservations. In fact, I used one of the USA Today articles titled “Full Service Chains Entice Diners with Deals” that was featured in the restaurant specials Google Alert. I paraphrased some of the information contained in the article and added more restaurants with recession specials to create the DinerDave.com post “Restaurant Recession Specials Mean Big Savings for Diners!“

And last, but certainly not least, I use my own experience with products and services offered by merchants such as Restaurant.com, Zagat.com, and OpenTable.com to write review posts. I have found that the easiest posts to write are the ones where I am simply talking about the products or services that I use frequently to enhance my dining out experience. See How I Saved $303/Week Dining Out with Restaurant.com” for an example of this type of post.

Step 2 – Determine if Content is “Post Worthy”

Now that I have gathered all these articles with ideas and information that I can pass along to my readers, I need to determine which ones will make the best posts. Here is the criteria I use to decide which posts to publish to DinerDave:

1. Is there an merchant affiliate program in place for the subject matter I’m writing about? I realize I cannot monetize EVERY post with an merchant offer, BUT I can at least populate the post with the right keywords to drive traffic to my site. Then maybe I can tack on some google ads to monetize that traffic or at least entice the site visitor to sign up for my e-newsletter.
2. Will the post have compelling content for “diehard diners” or at least be interesting to someone who would like to “dine more & pay less”? In other words, would a foodie like myself SEARCH for the content contained in this post?
3. Am I writing about product or service that I have personally used or experienced? If I have not used the product or service, then I will not write about it….period!

Step 3 – Writing Content

Writing content can actually be a bit of a daunting task for me since I have never considered myself to be a very eloquent, grammatically correct, or prolific writer. One piece of advice Ros gives that always helps me out when writing content is something I read in her article 6 Ways to Build Site Content:

“If you think that your writing lacks luster or you find that it’s a real grind, here’s a tip…writing well really isn’t that difficult. Can you talk? Can you tell a friend about a product or service that you like? If you can, then all you need to do is pretend that you’re talking to a friend and and type what you would say to them.”

This is actually what I’m doing right now…with you.

Using the advice and criteria listed above I’ve recently finished 7 posts and now I am ready to upload my cool new Studio Press Lifestyles Template to DinerDave.com (with a little help from my new friend Justin).

Stay tuned for my next Diner Dave Diary Post – “Designing the Look and Feel of DinerDave.com“!

In the Forum, shalisha42 noted:

Hi everyone. I’ve been following SAH and I put up my first real blog!!! I’m so psyched. I have one problem though… when I put my links in, they are grey instead of blue, so you really can’t tell that they are links. I use wordpress 2.7. Ros, you were right, it is much easier to build an affiliate site than to build a website. I am so proud of myself.

I am a natural writer so I get to write my own content.

Salisha – you SHOULD be proud of yourself! Congratulations!

Here’s the answer to your question about link colors.

In your WordPress theme files (i.e. Default, Lifestyle or whatever theme you are using under Appearance > Themes) you’ll find a cascading stylesheet called either style.css or styles.css.

Look for the code in the file that looks something like this:

a {
color: #275D89;
text-decoration: none;
}

a:visited {
color: #3774A7;
text-decoration: none;
}

a:hover {
color: #ff0000;
text-decoration: underline;
}

This example comes from the StudioPress Lifestyle Theme used on NetProfitsToday.com.

‘a’ is the stylesheet code for a link and to make the regular link the standard bright blue you would want to code that

a {
color: #0000ff;
}

If you are interested in getting the ‘hex codes’ for other colors besides that standard blue, you can find a really nice color chart here.

After converting my other sites to Brian Gardner’s StudioPress Lifestyle theme, I went for broke yesterday and activated the Lifestyle theme for WordPress here on NetProfitsToday.

And yes, this is partly in response to the fact that the majority of you said you did NOT like the logo I had designed for NPT at 99Designs — for a whoppin’ $375! So, although I’m still using the Libel Suit font, my mug is back on the header. Ugh. And after that major faux pas, I’m loathe to ask what you think of the header graphic change, but comment if you must.

In addition to the Featured Content Gallery on the homepage, what I’m loving most about the Lifestyle theme is the drop-down horizontal navigation bar — not, so much from the fact that it’s trippy, because those have been around forever and I could have coded that myself into the old theme (had I been more energetic) — but because it’s making it really easy to see how the older posts and categories can and should be arranged more logically, for a better visitor experience.

OK, go on, tell me what you think – and please let me know if you’re finding broken links. What with all that recategorization and renaming – there are bound to be a few!

I found the Doglirious site through a link in our Forum and my first reaction was “WOW!”

SO impressed was I, that I emailed Justin (the webmaster) to find out if I could profile his site in the Super Affiliate Handbook as an example of how an affiliate site SHOULD be fleshed out.

When Justin replied with a little background about the site, I was even MORE impressed. Here’s what he had to say:

Michelle (my girlfriend) and I adopted a dog from the Atlanta Humane Society about a year ago and ever since then, had been disappointed with the dog websites that existed. We were interested in reading product reviews from a website other than Amazon.com. Also, we were looking for reliable tips & advice that was fun to read (and sounded like it came from real dog owners). Finally, we wanted a central place to find online dog-product discounts from across the Web – but we just couldn’t find a website that offered these elements in a user-friendly manner.

So, about two months ago, we began brainstorming about how to create a dog lover’s website. One month ago, I bought your eBook, and with a lot of hard work, this project quickly blossomed due to our enthusiasm for the subject.

BRAVO!

Justin and Michelle started with exactly the right motivation and enthusiasm for building a business website. They saw the demand and went with the topic based on the fact that they’re both completely ‘doglirious’.

LOVE that name – Doglirious.

The WordPress Theme

The theme Justin is using for the site is Brian Gardner’s (Studio Press) Lifetyle theme. I asked him if they had an Elancer produce the graphics for the template or whether they designed them.

Other than Brian’s theme and the WordPress plug-ins, we developed the entire site ourselves – the layout, content, and technical design. Michelle and I had a concept for how we wanted the website to look & feel. I then saw the Revolution Lifestyle theme and thought, “Yep, this is it!“

I thought pretty much the same thing when Brian released his new WordPress theme package — especially about the Lifestyle, Church and Chrome themes — so I bought the StudioPress multi-theme package right away and have it up on a few sites already including 101Date.com (Lifestyle theme) and MyEnergyPal.com (Church Theme), the latter of which is a combined venture with my friend, Ed who wanted to generate leads for his local energy assessment business.

The affiliate in me said “let’s make money!” so I started that site on Sunday afternoon and pretty much had it the way it looks now by Monday afternoon — a total of about 12 hours which included time to collect and create some content as well as research and place a few offers. Now it’s just waiting for that all-important content from Ed.

Granted, I have a ‘little bit’ of experience with WordPress and WordPress themes but I wondered how much experience Justin had when he started working with the Lifestyle theme. Here’s what Justin had to say about his own level of expertise prior to starting Doglirious…

I have been tinkering with Web design for years and also obtained a Masters degree in usability & information architecture. So with those skills and the very helpful people at the Revolution community forum I quickly grasped WordPress (which I’ve never used before). The Revolution forum admins – just like yours on NetProfitsToday – are prompt and extremely helpful with their feedback and advice.

Oh…if you are interested, I’ve attached our early drafts of the website layout to this email for your reference (see screenshot to the right). A $5 box of Crayola colored pencils was our very first business expense.

In addition to aesthetic appeal, Justin’s educational background is likely what caused him to jump at the chance to work with this beautiful theme. The section layouts lead visitors down a natural path from Featured articles / posts near the top of the page to various sections of featured categories, and lastly to the sidebar navigation.

What sets the latest StudioPress themes apart however is the Featured Content Gallery plugin which allows you to attach those large pictures at the top of the page to specific articles, and add thumbnail pictures to the category sections — all of which increases the likelihood that a visitor will click a link and go deeper into the site.

For example, according to the Google Analytics report for MyEnergyPal (which hasn’t even officially launched ’cause I still have tweaking to do), of the 40 unique visitors we’ve had so far, the landing page has a 0.00% bounce rate. Bounce rate is the average percentage of initial visitors who “bounce” to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.

Pretty phenomenal!

But better yet, the average Pages/Visit is 16.50 and average time on the site is almost 24 minutes. Granted, that could have something to do with the fact that I count as one visitor and I had the site open in a browser for many, many, MANY hours.

Needless to say, when a theme makes a site that ‘sticky’, I plan to covert each of my sites to one of the StudioPress themes as soon as possible.

Interested in a LifeStyle Change?

Join us at Rosalind Gardner’s Academy which features the use of StudioPress themes.

Give your WordPress blog a professional look…

You can get free skins or themes for your WordPress blog, but truth be told, only a few of the free WordPress themes that I see are all that pretty, and none of them have any SEO components built into them.

So, I’ve resorted to buying themes for each of my WordPress blogs. Listed below are the design services where I’ve bought themes and templates.

1. StudioPress (Brian Gardner)
2. WooThemes
3. WP Remix
4. BoxedArt

Brian Gardner’s Themes

I use Brian Gardner’s themes here on Net Profits Today, Roamsters.com, 101Date.com and MyEnergyPal (screenshot shown below). I started using his themes when he came out with Revolution News — which is currently in use on NetProfitsToday, albeit highly modified now. You can read about how my average visitor duration increased after I started using his themes.

Brian’s themes come with uniquely-styled homepages, archives, section and post pages. I particularly like the ‘newspaper’ look and feel of the Lifestyle Theme homepage, on which you can display recent posts from categories of your choice, in any order you like, which is infinitely preferable to the endless 10-post homepage scroll on most blogs. The primary and secondary top navigation bars allow you to highlight pages and categories that you particularly want your visitors to see and visit.

I love Brian’s themes – primarily because his designs are fresh and fabulous and better yet, they encourage visitors to poke around the site longer.

Or, you can visit Brian’s WordPress theme site and check them out at the source.

WooThemes

WooThemes was formerly Premium News Themes by Adii. Pictured below is the Fresh News Theme which was designed and coded by Magnus Jepson. You’ll notice some similiarities between this and Adii’s other themes as it was built on the framework of previous Premium News themes.

I use the Premium News theme on RosalindGardner.com (ignore the wonky search button – I was playing around with the CSS and haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet) and what I especially appreciate about these themes is that features such as Flickr, Feedburner and banner ad management are fully integrated.

WooThemes offers WordPress themes in the following categories:

• Business
• CMS
• Magazine / News
• Personal Blog
• Portfolio

To see the themes themselves and everything that is included with these themes, visit WooThemes.

WP Remix

Flexibility and ease-of-use are what struck me first about the WP Remix theme for WordPress – especially regarding the ability to choose and change page and sidebar designs directly from the WYSIWYG editor.

Trust me, after doing the work to create my own category pages and related sidebars, this feature alone sets WP Remix apart from other WordPress themes.

Visit WP Remix | Read my Review

BoxedArt

The design on Sage-Hearts.com used to be a beautiful template from BoxedArt and some elements of that template still exist. However, when I installed the WordPress blog, I morphed the rest of the design to look more like the blog.

Boxed Art offers the world’s largest collection of Original Web Templates, Flash Templates, Print Templates, Graphic Elements and WordPress templates.

Most of these templates are absolutely beautiful – however – complete beginners or anyone unfamiliar with HTML may want to check out the simpler template offerings available at the sites listed above.

Visit BoxedArt.com

Those are just 3 sources for professional WordPress themes. Keep checking back as I add more when I find them.