New Mexico Mutual

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NMM’s website was designed by K2MD (formerly Kilmer & Kilmer) of Albuquerque specifically to use Evo’s evo5cms WordPress theme, which is the HTML5 version of our Evo4 CMS theme that we’ve used for a couple of years. Working with another designer always gives us a chance to stretch our ideas about what evo5cms can do, and this one is no exception: most people would be hard-pressed to see similarities between the site and other evo5cms sites.

The site makes use of a “news” custom post type and has a membership system that handles access to protected site content.

Compelling Cases

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Compelling Cases is one of our oldest clients, and it was gratifying to finally move them to a WordPress site which allows them to directly manage their own content. Built on Evo4 CMS theme, the site includes custom post types and a lot of custom fields to make managing site content a breeze.

We were also pleased with the ultra-clean look of the site, which presents content in an organized and uncluttered approach.

Sandia Science and Technology Park

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SSTP’s new site replaced what might have been the last website on the planet to be made up entirely of images (all text set in PhotoShop). SSTP is very happy to have a website they can update directly, and the site includes just about every trick we know for enhancing WordPress as a content management system, making updates as quick and easy as possible.

The site was designed to be compatible with the appearance of existing print collateral, and is built on the evo5cms theme.

New Mexico Technology Council

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The most recent launch of the four is NMTC’s new website, built on BuddyPress, which is a WordPress “super plugin” that turns WordPress into a social platform. NMTC has done some significant work in creating connections among various tech industries, interest groups, and companies in New Mexico, and their new website is a tool that they hope will help them strengthen those connections and foster additional connections.

This was our first experience with BuddyPress, which is a breeze to implement, but extremely complex to theme. We built a child theme on top of the BP Community theme. In addition, the site uses the s2Member membership plugin and Paypal Pro to handle membership purchases/renewals online. Also, of course, it utilizes custom post types and custom fields to simplify content management.

She wanted to know of a resource that would tell her how to get from the out-of-the-box Twenty-eleven theme to where she wanted to go with it. Lamely, I told her there was no such resource; no one could anticipate all the changes people would want to make and write a how-to covering them. Even more lamely, I told her she would just have to “hack away” and visit the Codex and wordpress.stackexchange.com when she encountered a problem. We briefly talked about child themes. Then she went away, disappointed.

As I thought about it, knowing I hadn’t been very helpful, I realized there was a basic mis-understanding about choosing a theme and designing around its structure and functionality. Someone had told her to design her theme in Photoshop, then select a good theme and hack it. Either they had not told her, or she had not understood, that theme selection is step one, then design should be based on that theme: utilizing its basic structure and incorporating whatever functionality it has that is useful for the particular site. I’m betting on the former: those of us with some experience are notoriously bad about skipping important bits of information when advising people with less experience.

Here is the list I sent her, suggesting she back up and start over:

1. Use the child theme approach, leaving the original theme and its functionality intact. Some themes get updated, fixing bugs or adding functionality. Using a child theme allows you to take advantage of theme updates while maintaining your look-and-feel. http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
2. Find a theme that is as close as possible, structurally, to what you want to end up with, and work within its structure as much as possible. Ideally, all you want to change is the appearance. This is like finding a house plan that suits you, then customizing it with floor coverings, wall coverings, paint, decor, and landscaping. Contrast the ease of that approach with starting with a 3/3/2 plan of a 1500-sq-ft single-story ranch, then changing it into a 2/2/2 plan of a 1800-sq-ft two-story Tudor; you probably should have started with a different plan.
3. Once you’ve settled on a theme, create a Photoshop design template based on screen shots you’ve made of the theme demo (some themes provide a design template). Add guidelines that define the header width, content width, sidebar width, etc.
4. Now you’re ready to design your theme.
5. Try to change only things that can be changed using CSS: backgrounds, typography, color, position, etc.* This approach lends itself to using a child theme.
6. Make a copy of the theme style sheet, make the changes at the top as described in Codex (above), and place it in a folder with a clever name, such as “mychildtheme.” Or even more clever, if you like. Upload the folder to your themes folder and activate the child theme. Hack away at the child theme CSS to implement your design changes (you may need to add an images folder to the child theme for background images). This is fun! Or at least, more fun than changing the ranch into a tudor.

*You can change column widths and position (structure) with CSS, but there are rarely only one or two places where those changes will need to be made. Can. Worms. You get the picture.

• Getting to work with great folks from ABQ and Santa Fe, including organizers/iron women Karen Arnold and Jenifer de la Garza (and their ever-helpful husbands Al and Rudy, respectively); fellow presenters Aryon Hoselton, Damian Taggart, and Sean Wells; and volunteers Guy Olds, James Tucker, Mildred Griffee, and others I am no doubt overlooking (with apologies).
• Meeting Lance Willett (Tucson), Joseph Scott (Salt Lake City), and Kevin Conboy (Denver), all from Automattic. Great guys who contributed a great deal to the quality of the event.
• Meeting various attendees. Some who gave me their cards or have contacted me since WordCamp via email or a social media channel: Cara Christenson, Bill and Merry Stubblefield, Mark Carrara, and others.
• Giving my presentation to an appreciative and generous audience who participated and asked questions. Interrupted briefly by attractive redhead taking my picture (later tweeting about my resemblance to Eddie Izzard. Not researching Mr. Izzard: might not be a compliment).
• Getting to help some people in WordDoctor session, an event in which various designer/developers donned lab coats and sat at individual tables, with people bringing specific issues they were having with their WordPress blogs/websites.
• Participating in designer/developer forum Sunday with Aryon Hoselton, Kevin Conboy, and Joseph Scott. Again, generous and participating audience who made the session with their questions.

The entire event was characterized by generosity, from sponsors to presenters to volunteers to attendees. Truly beyond our expectations.

And to top things off, during a slow period in the WordDoctor session, Damian Taggart of Mindshare Studios (and his sidekick, whose name I cannot recall) resolved an issue I was having with a query on a client website. This is a query for showing current exhibitions (custom post type) for the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, part of IAIA. Custom field values for exhibition start and end dates are compared against today’s date. Any exhibition with the start date less than or equal to today and an end date greater than or equal to today will appear on the listing page. I guess I’m becoming a geek; only a geek could work a code snippet into a thank you post. For any designer/developers who might be reading:

<?php
    $paged = ( get_query_var('paged') ) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
    $today = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-6 hours'));
    $currentexhibits = new WP_Query(array(
        'post_type' => 'exhibitions',
        'posts_per_page' => 6,
        'paged' => $paged,
        'orderby' => 'title',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        'meta_query'=>array(
        'relation'=>'AND',
            array(
            'key' => 'exstart-date',
            'value' => $today,
            'compare' => '<=',
            'type' => 'CHAR'
        ),
            array(
            'key' => 'exend-date',
            'value' => $today,
            'compare' => '>=',
            'type' => 'CHAR'
        )
    )
    ));
    if ($currentexhibits->have_posts()) :
    while ($currentexhibits->have_posts()) : $currentexhibits-> the_post();
?>

Slides from my presentation at WordCamp Albuquerque, Sep. 17, 2011. Also includes info about modifying Tiny MCE editor to make it more useful (and less dangerous).

The PDF is downloadable on Slideshare (link above slides and in the lower left of the control bar.)

This is not a feature comparison with other CMS platforms. Instead, I’m thinking about what the basic requirements for a CMS are, and what it takes for a CMS to be a good one. And there are only two kinds of CMS’s, from an end-user perspective: “good” or “bad.” Thinking about that inevitably leads to thinking about what kind of people use CMS’s (the “end users”), so I’ll start with them.

The people who update the company website don’t care what flavor the CMS is.

Typically, CMS users don’t maintain the website because they love websites. They maintain the website because it’s part of their job. For the most part, they want to make an update quickly and easily, and then go on to more important things. They don’t care if the CMS is WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or some other flavor, as long as it makes their work easier and quicker, and doesn’t get in their way. This may seem obvious, but I know from experience that a lot of developers don’t give this any thought.

Ease-of-use is not negotiable.

Complicated, confusing user interfaces are productivity killers. They can be a mere annoyance or an actual obstruction to keeping the website updated. When updating the website is difficult, the normal and usual end result is that the website does not get updated. And at that point, its value as a business and communication tool is non-existent. WordPress is famous for its ease-of-use and friendly user interface, consistently ranking ahead of other platforms in this regard. And it can be made more so, with a little bit of intelligent use of custom post types and custom fields.

The need for HTML coding must be minimized or eliminated.

This is actually an ease-of-use issue for most end users, but I think it deserves special mention. Straight out of the box, WordPress flunks this test. If all editing and formatting must be done in the WordPress editor, a good working knowledge of HTML (and possibly some CSS) is mandatory. But in the hands of a good developer, WordPress can excel in making HTML coding either optional or completely unnecessary.

Flexibility is critical.

Although there are some things most businesses and organizations need in a website, many of them also have some unique needs. A good CMS must be able to accommodate these needs without extensive and expensive development, while maintaining ease-of-use for the end user. With custom fields, custom post types, and custom taxonomies, WordPress is one of the most flexible platforms around.

The CMS platform must be well-supported.

Business users will not gamble on a system with an uncertain future or inadequate technical support, and why should they? In most cases, of course, the level of support an end user gets is dependent on the developer who implemented their website. But that developer can draw on the WordPress community when necessary. WordPress is the most widely used open-source CMS platform in the world by a very wide (and accelerating) margin. It has a large, committed developer base, in addition to the core development team. If there is a better bet than WordPress in terms of longevity, I’ve not heard of it.

Getting assistance as a developer from the WordPress community is practically standard procedure. Much of what I’ve learned about WordPress comes from WordPress’ excellent online documentation, and from other developers (most of whom I’ve never met in person) who are willing to offer assistance or advice.

In addition, should the original developer fall short in website support, finding a good WordPress developer is relatively easy: they’re not rare. Owners of WordPress-based websites do not need to fear that they’ll have to redo their website on yet another platform if they wish to work with a new developer.

Did I mention ease-of-use?

I just thought it was worth mentioning one more time

First, I created a custom post type for events. Then I created a custom field called “order-date” to control ordering. Why a custom field? Why not rely on WordPress’ innate order-by-date function? Because WordPress uses the date posted, and it’s quite likely that events will not be posted in the order of their occurrence. But just as important, I needed the order-date to be the date of the event so we could use it to drop an event from the upcoming events listing and move it to the events archive listing. The custom field uses the Y-m-d date format for comparison with the Y-m-d format of today’s date.

Here is the query on the upcoming events listing template:

<?php
   $paged = ( get_query_var('paged') ) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
      $today = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-6 hours')); //define “today” format; note timezone offset of -6 hours
      query_posts(array(
      'post_type' => 'events', //query “events”
      'posts_per_page' => 5,
      'paged' => $paged,
      'meta_key' => 'order-date',
      'orderby' => 'meta_value',
      'order' => 'ASC', //sort in ascending order
      'meta_query' => array(
         array(
         'key' => 'order-date',
         'meta-value' => $value, //value of “order-date” custom field
         'value' => $today, //value of “today”
         'compare' => '>=', //show events greater than or equal to today
         'type' => 'CHAR'
         )
      )
   ));
   if (have_posts()) :
   while (have_posts()) : the_post();
?>

On a separate template for displaying the archive listing, I made the following changes (highlighted in red) to display past events in descending order:

<?php
   $paged = ( get_query_var('paged') ) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
      $today = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-6 hours'));
      query_posts(array(
      'post_type' => 'events',
      'posts_per_page' => 5,
      'paged' => $paged,
      'meta_key' => 'order-date',
      'orderby' => 'meta_value',
      'order' => 'DESC', //descending order
      'meta_query' => array(
         array(
         'key' => 'order-date',
         'meta-value' => $value,
         'value' => $today,
         'compare' => '<', //show events less than today (past)
         'type' => 'CHAR'
         )
      )
   ));
   if (have_posts()) :
   while (have_posts()) : the_post();
?>

I used to think it was important to have a land line because along with it came a Yellow Pages listing. But in the past 2 years, I’ve logged the calls coming in on the land line. The average number of calls I’ve gotten on the land line each month during that period is between 15-16. Three of those are typically from two long-standing clients who seem to prefer that number to my cell phone (Marcie, Ted: call me on my cell!). About every 3-4 months I get a call from a new prospective client, indicating they found me in the Yellow Pages. At least 80% of those want me to fix a broken down website their nephew built for them in 2002, or something equally unattractive or unrewarding (I’ve learned the magic phrase that makes them go away: “we’re not the right people for that”). During the two years, I have not acquired a single new client who first contacted me on my land line or who first saw my Yellow Pages ad and then contacted me by other means.

By contrast, during that period I’ve acquired approximately a dozen new clients who contacted me at someone’s recommendation, who found me in a web search, or who became acquainted with me via social media. Monthly cost for those? $0. Math is not my strong suit, but even I can figure out that, in comparison, the Yellow Pages ad is not very cost-effective.

And the other 12-13 calls per month? People from India selling offshore programming and “web designing” services (why do always say “web designing” and not “web design?”). No kidding. I guess in India they assume web developers here are so busy that we need a lot of help, because they call and they call and they call. I understand they’re just trying to make a living, but I do get tired of telling them I’m not interested.

The other reason I have held onto my land line is so I can have a fax machine. But I realized recently that I have not needed a fax machine in more than a year, and probably could have emailed a scanned document saved as a pdf in its place. Faxing has become outmoded as a means of communication. It’s time to dump the fax machine and move on.

I’m looking forward to being done with Qwest. I expect it will feel a bit like it felt when I was able to replace Microsoft Office for Mac with Open Office: lighter, more flexible. And $56/month more in my pocket. And I can live without explaining several times a month that I don’t need web designing services.

Update 6/16/2011: This did not factor into my decision, but when I called Qwest to cancel as of July 1, I was able to reserve the land line number for one year for $65, during which time a phone message directing callers to my cell phone number will be played (I expect that means I will continue to hear from programmers in India, sigh…). If I decide I made a mistake during that 12-month period, I can have the land line restarted. It’s nice to have the fallback option, though I don’t foresee using it.

So, when you find a company blog that’s entertaining and informative, co-written by several people in a company who, as a group, post two-three times each week, who aren’t afraid to be real people in their blog posts: well, it’s beyond refreshing. It’s stunning. The Hilltop Landscape Architects and Contractors have a company blog like that. In less than four months (their current WordPress-based website launched in January, 2011), blogging has become central to their marketing efforts, and their website traffic is on a definite upward slope.

I have first-hand knowledge of The Hilltop as a customer (if you live in New Mexico and need landscaping, you should contact them). They are also my client. I designed and built their website and I work with them on an ongoing basis as a blog coach. I would love to be able to take credit for the quality of their blog, but I do little more than encourage them and make an occasional edit for clarity. I can tell you not all of the bloggers at The Hilltop were just waiting for an opportunity to write an occasional blog post. But they do it, and even (sometimes) find themselves enjoying it. And they are producing a body of work that is beginning to add up to a resource for people with various landscape issues.

Recent blog posts have dealt with practical matters such as windbreaks, dog-friendly landscaping, weed control, the dangers of topping trees, and landscaping methods for reducing danger from wildfires. There have also been posts on subjects such as sensory gardens, New Mexico blooming plants, and the importance of focal points in landscape design. And then there was the infamous April 1 blog post. This kind of variety (and I’ve only scratched the surface) makes The Hilltop’s blog both an information resource and a source of entertainment.

How do they do it? It starts with a commitment from the owner, Jim Forrester. The Hilltop has never had a marketing department; they’ve never needed one because the continual growth in Albuquerque and other cities in New Mexico kept them busy and growing. In the last couple of years, things have gotten a lot more competitive. Jim knew they had to do something to market the company’s services, but he found the idea of spending money on traditional marketing less than appealing. When he and I talked about how inbound marketing techniques could be used to gain business, he liked the idea. More importantly, he committed his time and his people’s time to make it happen. Among the eight Hilltop staffers who blog (including Jim), blogging is part of their job.

Once a week (recently every two weeks, because spring is their busiest season), we meet for an hour to discuss upcoming and potential blog posts and talk about such things as how to get backlinks, how to promote their blog posts, what to do when the blogging well runs dry, and other things related to blogging. There is usually a fair amount of laughing and carrying on; someone looking in the window might conclude there was no useful work being done. But they’d be wrong.

Take a look at The HIlltop’s blog. Read a few posts and then come back here and tell me what you think.

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Recently I launched a complete remake of my personal art site: raygulick.com. I’m an oil painter, and my painting site has needed an upgrade for at least 2-3 years. Some opportunities as a painter are beginning to come my way, so I had some motivation to redesign the website and, of course, I built it on WordPress.

I started out looking at existing gallery themes (there are literally hundreds), but could not find one that wasn’t over-complicated, under-documented, or both. In the interest of both saving some time and ending up with what I wanted, I decided to create my own gallery theme that suits the way I want to work and display my art. EvoGallery CMS was the result. It shares some characteristics with Evo4CMS theme, but there are significant differences in the grid and in functionality specifically suited for online galleries.

The theme has a deliberately stripped-down appearance that allows website visitors to focus their attention on the artwork. For now, the website utilizes only the homepage gallery, but as I need additional galleries, they can be easily added. “Sold” or “NFS” items can easily be indicated without having to create a new thumbnail image. Care has been taken to make the theme as quickly and easily “update-able” by artists (not normally HTML monkeys) as possible.

I’ve decided not to release EvoGallery CMS for public download while I mull over some business opportunities in which the theme may play a role.

The first site, launching Thursday evening, is The Hilltop Landscape Architects and Contractors. The Hilltop is the premier landscape company in New Mexico, both in residential and commercial landscaping. They decided a new website was in order to serve as the foundation for their marketing efforts. Their site is built on WordPress and includes a blog, several galleries (The Hilltop has great photos, and you should go check them out), and a New Mexico Landscaping Plants and Trees resource and reference. We will be working with them for the next several months, coaching them in making the most of their website in marketing their services.

The second site, launching just about 24 hours later, is Passages International. Passages provides green funeral products to funeral homes, allowing funeral homes to offer green funerals to the growing number of people who want them. Their website features product galleries, with plans to evolve toward taking wholesale orders online. Some related websites will follow shortly, including a site serving the United Kingdom and a site offering products for green pet funerals.

As demanding as the sites were as they slide down the rails together, the companies are both interesting and the people associated with them are great people. As such, these sites represent some of our best best work, much of it behind the scenes utilizing WordPress custom fields to expand its CMS capabilities.

Both sites were built on WordPress with our own Evo4 CMS theme. If you look at both, a similar structure can be detected, but the look and feel of the sites are completely different. Evo4 CMS gives designers a “blank canvas” on which to support almost any business’ branding and marketing needs, and launching these two sites together for two very different kinds of businesses allows us to highlight the theme’s flexibility.