I get asked at least once per week how I got the custom content on my category pages (you can check out the affiliate marketing category here on Sugarrae or the SEO conference category on Outspoken Media to see examples). The answer are custom category hooks and the instructions for creating them are below.

Now first, I’d like to say that having custom categories is possible in any WordPress theme. So, if you’re not using Thesis, all you need to do is duplicate the basic category.php template of your theme and and then customize it for each category, name it category-#.php (with # being the actual number of the category you have customized that template for) and upload it to your theme file. WordPress by default will first check for a category-#.php file before it renders the plain category.php if a custom one does not exist.

That said, if you plan to customize every category on your blog, I’d highly suggest switching to the Thesis platform. Why? Well, if you go to change blog layouts or designs in the future, you will have to re-create every single custom category template in the new theme. With Thesis, if you change the design, the hooks still remain. You do it once and don’t have to worry about it again.

For those of us already on the Thesis theme, adding the hooks to do the custom categories is fairly easy. However, please note that you need to be on Thesis 1.4 or higher for the instructions below to work. If you’re still using an older version of the theme, you need to upgrade. I’d also recommend reading hooks for dummies before attempting the below so you get an idea of how hooks work so the code below makes more sense.

Creating Custom Categories

Let’s say you want to add some custom text to the top of your “apples” category page, above where the listing of your posts in that category appear and different custom text to the top of your “oranges” category page.

Step 1: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 2: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code (this code assumes your blog is in the root):

/* Custom Categories */
function custom_archive_info() {
if (is_category('apples')) {
?>
<div class="post_box top intro_block">
<div class="headline_area">
<h1><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
</div>
<div class="format_text">
<p>YOUR CUSTOM APPLES TEXT HERE</p>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
elseif (is_category('oranges')) {
?>
<div class="post_box top intro_block">
<div class="headline_area">
<h1><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
</div>
<div class="format_text">
<p>YOUR CUSTOM ORANGES TEXT HERE</p>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
else
thesis_default_archive_info();
}
remove_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'thesis_default_archive_info');
add_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'custom_archive_info');

The /* Custom Categories */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The custom_archive_info is what I decided to name that function.

The if (is_category(‘apples’)) tells Thesis the category archive page you are looking to alter is the apples category. It goes by post slug of the category. So if the url of your category page is www.yourblog.com/category/learning-seo/ then you would use if (is_category(‘learning-seo’)) in place of if (is_category(‘apples’)). This line says IF the category is “apples” then insert the custom text below.

Now, the next portion of the code is an “else if” statement. If the category is apples, then it will insert the specified text outlined in (is_category(‘apples’)) OR if (elseif) the category is oranges, it will insert the specified text outlined in (is_category(‘oranges’)). The last portion of the code (else) basically says if it is anything else aside from the categories specified above, then use this default code (which happens to be the regular Thesis category page).

So you start with the initial “if” statement (the first category that you specify – choose any one you want) and then all subsequent categories would be “elseif” statements followed by the “default” “else” statement of what to use if you haven’t specified anything specific.

You can add more categories by simply adding more “elseif” statements:

elseif (is_category('yet-another-category')) {
?>
<div class="post_box top intro_block">
<div class="headline_area">
<h1><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
</div>
<div class="format_text">
<p>YOUR CUSTOM TEXT FOR THIS CATEGORY HERE</p>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}

Between the first “elseif” statement and the “else” statement in the example above:

elseif (is_category('oranges')) {
?>
<div class="post_box top intro_block">
<div class="headline_area">
<h1><?php single_cat_title(); ?></h1>
</div>
<div class="format_text">
<p>YOUR CUSTOM ORANGES TEXT HERE</p>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
ADD MORE ELSEIF STATEMENTS (AKA CATEGORIES) HERE
else
thesis_default_archive_info();
}

The last two lines of the initial code example above:

remove_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'thesis_default_archive_info');
add_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'custom_archive_info');

Basically tell Thesis you want to remove the “thesis_default_archive_info” function (the default category instructions) from the “thesis_hook_archive_info” and replace it with the “custom_archive_info” function (which contains the new category instructions you just made).

Creating Custom Tag Pages

If you use tags instead of (or in addition to) categories and would like to create custom pages for those as well, just replace:

(is_category('yet-another-category'))

with:

(is_tag('tag-slug'))

If you’re using the Thesis theme already and have read my other Thesis tutorials you’ll probably find this process pretty easy. If you haven’t made the switch to using Thesis yet, I’d highly recommend you read my review of the Thesis theme, as well as the tutorials to get a sense of why I am such a loud-mouthed and enthusiastic evangelist for this theme.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Creating Custom Categories

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Creating Custom Categories

A few weeks ago, I published a Thesis theme tutorial that showed you how to do advanced ad targeting. The tutorial showed you how to assign ads to be different based on the category the posts were filed in, as well as change them on a post by post basis.

While “You 404′d it. Gnarly, dude.” is a semi-custom page since it does keep with your theme and design, you may want to give it a little bit of your own personality and wording to make it truly “custom”. Below, I’ll show you how to do it.

Step 1: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 2: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code (this code assumes your blog is in the root):

/* Custom 404 Hooks */
function custom_thesis_404_title() {
?>
YOUR 404 PAGE HEADING HERE
<?
}

remove_action(’thesis_hook_404_title’, ’thesis_404_title’);
add_action(’thesis_hook_404_title’, ’custom_thesis_404_title’);

function custom_thesis_404_content() {
?>
<p>WHATEVER YOU WANT YOUR 404 PAGE TO SAY HERE</p>
<?
}

remove_action(’thesis_hook_404_content’, ’thesis_404_content’);
add_action(’thesis_hook_404_content’, ’custom_thesis_404_content’);

The /* Custom 404 Hooks */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance and is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The custom_thesis_404_title is what I decided to name that function.

You’ll notice this code has two functions. One controls the 404 page heading (custom_thesis_404_title) and one controls the 404 page content (custom_thesis_404_content).

The code is pretty self-explanatory on how to edit. The two lines underneath each function tell Thesis to remove it’s default thesis_404_title and thesis_404_content and replace each with the custom versions. (See hooks for dummies for a more detailed explanation of how this hook “works.”)

Custom 404 pages are your only chance to turn a lost visitor into a site user, so you want to make sure you serve up something that makes a good first impression. If you need some 404 inspiration, check out these 100 awesome and creative 404 error pages.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Customizing the 404 Page

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Customizing the 404 Page

Since my last tutorial explaining the basics of the newly unveiled Thesis hooks was so well received, I thought I’d show you a bit more of how advanced the Thesis theme really is.

Not only will I “show” you, but I’ll also teach you how to take advantage of it on your own personal or professional blog.

If you look at my site, you’ll notice I run a large graphical ad above the fold on the Sugarrae website:


Ok, big deal Rae… we already know Thesis can use more custom ad targeting than most themes and that you can specify specific ads on a page by page basis:

Imagine you own an SEO blog but get a lot of traffic from people searching for routers due to a one off post you did… with Thesis, you can change your advertising on that single page to be router related without forcing you to rely on webmaster welfare to do it for you. – Source

And it is one of my favorite features about Thesis. You didn’t need to pick one “sitewide ad”. But after implementing “post specific” ads heavily, I needed to change a “non converting” ad. The problem was that I had to change the ad on every individual post (and good luck on remembering exactly which pages have which ads if you have several hundred posts).

Additionally, there was no way to specify an ad on a specific category page. It always showed the “sitewide” ad by default. While my blogging category page would do well showing an ad for the Thesis theme, my affiliate marketing category page would likely do better showing an ad for Linkshare or Pepperjam.

What I wanted was the ability to:

• Specify a specific ad for each individual category page on my blog
• Have posts filed in each category show the “category ad” for its category by default
• Still be able to override the default ad on a single post if I choose

For example:

• I want to show an ad for Pepperjam on my affiliate marketing category page
• I want all posts filed in the affiliate marketing category to have that same Pepperjam ad by default
• I want to still be able to override that default Pepperjam ad on a single post with an ad for Linkshare if I choose

And by using hooks, I’m able to do all of the above. And now you can too.

Example: Specifying Custom Category Ads

Let’s say you want to show an ad for Acme Lightbulbs on the main page of your lightbulbs category and have that ad be the default ad for all single posts in the lightbulbs category. You also want to show an ad for Granny Apples in your apples category and have that ad be the default ad for single posts in the apples category. On all other site pages, you want to show an ad for Thesis.

Step 1: Upload the graphics you want to add to show up in your multimedia box to the custom images folder (thesis > custom > images > put your image here)

Step 2: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 3: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code (this code assumes your blog is in the root):

/* Multimedia Box */
function custom_ad_box() {
$categories = thesis_get_categories();

if ($categories) {
if (is_category('lightbulbs') || in_category($categories['lightbulbs']))
lightbulb_ad();
elseif (is_category('apples') || in_category($categories['apples']))
apples_ad();
else
generic_ad();
}
}

function thesis_get_categories() {
$raw_categories = &get_categories('type=post');

if ($raw_categories) {
$categories = array();

foreach ($raw_categories as $category)
$categories[$category - >slug] = $category - >cat_ID;

return $categories;
}
}

add_action('thesis_hook_multimedia_box', 'custom_ad_box');

The /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The custom_ad_box is what I decided to name that function.

The code underneath it basically says if that category is lightbulbs (the name you enter here is based on the “slug” of your category. So if your category url is www.domain.com/category-here/ then you would enter “category-here” without the quotes in place of “lightbulbs”) then the category should show the ad named “ad_lightbulb” (we’ll define how to create your ad next). – “if is_category”

If the category is not lightbulbs, then it will check to see if the category is apples and if it is, it will show the ad named “ad_apples”. – “elseif is_category”

If the category is not any of those defined in the code (in this case, lightbulbs and apples) then it will show the ad named “generic_ad”. – “else”

The second function in the above code, which is function thesis_get_categories is generic and should not be changed. The only changes you need to make are to the category names and names of the ads to be shown or adding additional “elseif is_category” lines.

The add_action('thesis_hook_multimedia_box', 'custom_ad_box'); line tells Thesis that you want it to add a function in the multimedia box and the function you want to add is the one we just created – the custom_ad_box function.

Now that Thesis knows what ad name to show on what categories, we need to define the ads themselves.

/* Custom Ads */
function lightbulbs_ad() {
?>
<a href="http://www.LINKLIGHTBULBADISLINKEDTOHERE.com/"><img src="THE-URL-OF-YOUR-LIGHTBULB-AD-IMAGE-GOES-HERE"></a>
<?php
}

function apples_ad() {
?>
<a href="http://www.LINKAPPLESADISLINKEDTOHERE.com/"><img src="THE-URL-OF-YOUR-APPLES-AD-IMAGE-GOES-HERE"></a>
<?php
}

function generic_ad() {
?>
<a href="http://www.LINKGENERICADISLINKEDTOHERE.com/"><img src="THE-URL-OF-YOUR-GENERIC-AD-IMAGE-GOES-HERE"></a>
<?php
}

As with before, the /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. In this case, we’re defining three “functions” which are ads to be used in the custom_ad_box function we already defined above we decided to name lightbulbs_ad, apples_ad and generic_ad. Just put the HTML for whatever you want to appear in that ad slot there:

function name_of_ad() {
?>
HTML HERE
<?php
}

I first defined what ads should appear where and then defined the ads themselves underneath. However, if you find it easier, you can always define the ads first and then define where they should appear second. The order doesn’t matter as long as you both define the ads and in what categories they should appear.

That said, please note that if you were previously using the “custom code” option in the Thesis options panel, and there is code in there currently, you will need to remove the code and hit the big ass save button to see your new ad hooks display.

You can override the default ad shown for any category on a single post basis the same way as before:

I’m able to override the base choice I’ve made of what to show in that area for the majority of my site pages/posts in the Thesis control panel, all without ever having to touch a drop of code in the WordPress templates by utilizing the custom key option on the specific page or post.

If you view the photo above, you’ll see I was able to select the “custom” key I defined in the Thesis control panel and “override it” and insert specific code to replace the normal “custom” key, only for this post.

If you’re still not using Thesis, get on board. This is the first of many cool tutorials I’ll have coming in the next few months that show why Thesis is quickly moving from being the “best theme choice” for a professional blog to being the “only choice”.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Advanced Ad Targeting

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Advanced Ad Targeting

By now, most people know that I am an evangelist for the Thesis theme and that the Sugarrae site actually runs on the theme.

When Chris Pearson announced the newest release of Thesis, it touted a bunch of great new features and fixed most of my previous gripes. Users who don’t know CSS or PHP have more control with the new thesis them than with any other theme I’ve ever seen.

It looked completely awesome until I downloaded it and saw that Thesis was now run completely on “hooks”. Not only did I not know what a hook was, the tutorials and discussions I saw about it scared the hell out of me.

My level of PHP knowledge (the code language WordPress is run on) is slight at best, thus why I was so thrilled in my earlier review:

You can do everything Thesis does without putting down any money buying the theme. Hell, you could also do this with wordpress if you knew how to (yes, no shit).

Now, you might be someone who can do all this without buying Thesis.

However, I am not. So I bought Thesis.

Now I suddenly was in need of “hooks” to do any “out of the ordinary” customizations (such as adding social bookmarking plugins). I opened up my index template and saw this (and ONLY this):

<?php thesis_html_framework(); ?>

The single post template was missing. The tutorials were in Japanese as far as I was concerned. Thesis was now either for the very basic or the very advanced… those of us hacking plugins into core files were out of luck. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

So I whined to told Pearson that I didn’t understand this or like this one bit. He assured me hooks were easy. He assured me once I learned them, I’d love them. He sent me a link to one of the tutorials. I suddenly realized how people who don’t know SEO must feel reading a document about latent semantic indexing. I also decided I was going to force Pearson to teach me how to do it so I could help non-programmers understand hooks the way Aaron helped the non technical understand LSI. Luckily for me (and hopefully you), he obliged.

The below is the completely “not technical” explanation of hooks, why you need them and how to make them (with examples you can then hack away with). It is chock full of incorrect terminology (I’m pretty sure “put this stuff here” is not part of any PHP instruction manual) and if you’re a programmer, you can go read the properly written tutorial here and spare me on showing me the size of your programming penis by pointing out how small mine is in the comments. ;-)

If you’re scared of that tutorial, confused and can’t follow these instructions:

1. construct a simple function to house your custom HTML
2. tell Thesis where to place your custom code by specifying the appropriate hook

Because you a. don’t know what a function is b. how to write one c. what a hook is or d. how to find “the appropriate” one, then you might want to check out the below.

How to Use Hooks without Learning Japanese

Hooks are basically each section of your theme separated into a single part as well as ways to define areas before and after those parts. Your header is controlled by one hook (thesis_hook_header) while you can use other hooks to put any code you choose before (thesis_hook_before_header) of after (thesis_hook_after_header). Every area has a hook and most areas also have hooks that will allow you to place things before or after them. Instead of the PHP code appearing on the actual page, only the call to the hook that says “put what’s in this hook here” does.

Hooks define where stuff appears and functions define what stuff appears.

A function is essentially code you can assign to a hook that should appear within a hook. For example:

function your_function_name() {
?>
YOUR RAW HTML
<?php
}

Hooks are basically the various parts of your blog, and functions are things that appear within them so to speak.

Now that you know what a hook is and what a function is, we’ll talk about how to add functions to your hooks to do things like add your own graphic into your header or add in social bookmarking buttons.

First things first, never change or edit existing hooks or functions. If you’re looking for the file that contains the core hooks or functions to change them, stop in your tracks. Unless you’re a programmer by trade, you will only risk messing something up by touching them. You never change existing hooks or functions in the core files – you simply add additional functions or replace existing functions with new ones.

Thesis will check your custom_functions.php for instructions and cross reference it so to speak with the core files. If you have removed a core hook or added an additional hook in the custom_functions.php file, then it will override the commands in its core files. (I’m no programmer folks and have already given you my disclaimer on using proper technical terminology to describe this above.)

The way I learned hooks was by example, so I am going to (attempt to) do the same here.

Thesis Hook Example 1: Changing your Header
Thesis Hook Example 2: Adding Social Bookmarking Icons
Thesis Hook Example 3: Changing the Thesis Footer
Thesis Hook Example 4: Adding the Social Profiles Plugin

Thesis Hook Example 1: Changing your Header

Let’s say you want to change your header to include a graphic or logo like my site does above.

Step 1: Upload the graphic you want to add to your header (if applicable) to the custom images folder (thesis > custom > images > put your image here)

Step 2: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 3: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code (this code assumes your blog is in the root):

/* Custom Header Image */
function add_header_image () {
echo "<a href=\"http://www.yourblogurl.com/\" title=\"Your Blog Title\">
<img src=\"THE-URL-OF-YOUR-LOGO-GOES-HERE\" alt=\"Your Blog Title\" height=\"170\" width=\"528\" style=\"border:0px\" />
</a>";
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_title', 'add_header_image');

The /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The add_header_image is what I decided to name that function.

The http://www.yourblogurl.com tells Thesis where to link the blog header image to (usually the homepage) and the “Your Blog Title” tells it what the name of that link (hidden in code) should be. The link after img src is the address of where your logo is located, the alt is “Your Blog Title” (which will show in case the image doesn’t for some reason), the height and width of the image as well as whether or not to give the image a border are all defined next.

The add_action(‘thesis_hook_after_title’, ‘add_header_image’); line tells Thesis that you want it to add a function after the Title and the function you want to add is the one we just created – the add_header_image function. This function utilizes PHP within it, which I don’t fully understand, so that’s about all I can explain folks.

The good news is, this is the most common hook people need to add and to me, is also the most complicated hook. If you can fake make your way through this, you’ll be fine.

Thesis Hook Example 2: Adding Social Bookmarking Icons

This hook will show you how to add some social bookmarking or social media buttons to the bottom of only your single post pages (the actual page your full, individual blog post lives on) like my site does.

Step 1: Upload the graphics you want to use to link to the social sites (if applicable) to the custom images folder (thesis > custom > images > put your images here)

Step 2: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 3: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code (this code assumes your blog is in the root and is to place Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious and a link to your RSS at the bottom of each individual post on your blog):

/* Custom Social Media After Post Hook */
function add_social_media () {
if (is_single()) {
?>
<p><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_STUMBLE_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&URL=<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_DIGG_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_DELICIOUS_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://www.linktoyourfeedhere.com"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_STUMBLE_GRAPHIC"></a></p>
<?php
   }
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_post', 'add_social_media');

Same as before, the /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The add_social_media is what I decided to name that function.

The if (is_single()) is a conditional tag that basically tells Thesis to only use that function if the page is the single post page. If I changed it to be is_category() it would only run this function on category pages. You can find a full list of conditional tags here. If you wanted to change this to show the social bookmarking buttons on every page of the site, you’d remove the (is_single()) and the following { and later } like so:

/* Custom Social Media After Post Hook */
function add_social_media () {
?>
<p><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_STUMBLE_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&URL=<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_DIGG_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_DELICIOUS_GRAPHIC"></a><a href="http://www.linktoyourfeedhere.com"><img src="THE_URL_OF_YOUR_STUMBLE_GRAPHIC"></a></p>
<?php
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_post', 'add_social_media');

The rest of the code is the traditional HTML code you’d use to add those bookmarking buttons to your theme normally.

The add_action(’thesis_hook_after_post’, ‘add_social_media’); line tells Thesis that you want it to add a function after the post content and the function you want to add is the one we created – the add_social_media function.

Thesis Hook Example 3: Changing the Thesis Footer

A lot of times people want to customize their footer to add copyright notices or other information. The example below will show you how to change your Thesis footer link.

Step 1: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 2: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code:

/* Custom Footer Hook */
remove_action('thesis_hook_footer', 'thesis_attribution');
function add_custom_footer () {
?>
<p>© 2008 Ourblog.com – All rights reserved. – <a href="http://www.ourblog.com/privacy-policy/">Privacy Policy</a></p>
<p>No content on this site may be reused in any fashion without written permission from Ourblog.com or whatever you want your footer to include</p>
<?php
}
add_action('thesis_hook_footer', 'add_custom_footer');

Again, the /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The remove_action(‘thesis_hook_footer’, ‘thesis_attribution’); tell Thesis that you wish to remove the regular Thesis footer function (thesis_attribution which we know is the default function the hook uses) from the thesis_hook_footer (the hook we know generates the footer). The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The add_custom_footer is what I decided to name that function.

The HTML for what I want to appear in the footer is added and then the add_action(‘thesis_hook_footer’, ‘add_custom_footer’); line tells Thesis you want to add a function to the thesis_hook_footer (the hook that creates the footer) and the function you want to add is the one we created – add_custom_footer.

So, the code above essentially says “Hey Thesis, please remove the code (thesis_attribution) you put into the footer (thesis_hook_footer) by default and replace it with our code (add_custom_footer). You can do that with any hook function you’d like.

Thesis Hook Example 4: Adding the Social Profiles Plugin

If you’re using the Social Profiles plugin we created here at Sugarrae, the following code will show you how to get the plugin output to appear in your comments area in the same way they appear in mine (after the author’s name, the date, etc but before the comment).

Step 1: upload and activate the Social Profiles plugin

Step 2: Open your custom_functions.php file (thesis > custom > custom_functions.php) in your favorite editor

Step 3: Underneath the example code already in the file, place the following code:

/* Custom Social Profiles for Comments Addition */
function add_social_profiles () {
global $comment;
?>
<?php cyc2_show_profiles($comment->user_id); ?>
<?php
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_comment_meta', 'add_social_profiles');

Per usual, the /* Stuff Inside Here */ is a label for the code below so you know what it is at a single glance. This is not part of the actual “code”. The word “function” tells Thesis you want it to do something. The add_social_profiles is what I decided to name that function.

The PHP code for the plugin is added and then the add_action(‘thesis_hook_after_comment_meta’, ‘add_social_profiles’); line tells Thesis you want to add a function to the thesis_hook_after_comment_meta (the hook that creates the name, date, number, etc of commenters) and the function you want to add is the one we created – add_social_profiles.

Thesis Hooks are Easy

Above, I’ve shown you an example for changing the header (the most common customization you’d need to understand the hooks to do), how to add something to only one specific template (to a single page, to a category page, etc), how to add something to every page, how to remove a function from a hook and add a new one (the footer example) and how to add plugin code (in this case, by adding Social Profiles to the comments area as an example).

You’ll also find the following documentation (linked above in the examples) to be of use to you when using functions and hooks as well:

• The official hooks tutorial
• Thesis hook reference list
• Default hook usage in Thesis
• Listing of the conditional tags you can use with WordPress

If you’re using the Thesis Theme already, I hope you find this tutorial to be a help in customizing the new version. If you’ve been on the fence about Thesis, I hope this has shown you hooks aren’t anything to be afraid of and that you can still customize Thesis without being a PHP guru. If you’re ready to make the leap to Thesis, you can get your copy of Thesis here.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Hooks for Dummies

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Thesis Tutorial – Hooks for Dummies

During PubCon last week, Vanessa Fox and I managed to sneak away to lunch alone to have some catch up time since both of our schedules are a bit insane.

After I calmed down from being attacked by a random sparrow (it was a really, REALLY big sparrow, ok?), the topic of conversation turned to Vanessa launching her new blog this week (uh, at least that’s the plan), Nine by Blue.

We were discussing proper and effective tactics to use for promoting new blogs and I made the mention that bloggers could take a lesson from actors, writers and musicians when they launch a new blog as far as promotional tactics. We discussed the similarities and while most are in tune with launching a brand new blog, most of these tactics can be effective for any website.

Promos and Trailers

Long before their newest album is complete or the movie is even 1/8 of the way to completing shooting, Studios and record labels are releasing movie trailers or plastering bookstores with posters advertising their impending release.

Bloggers can use this too by starting to “promo” a website before it’s fully completed. Add a blurb about your new site to the bottom of your latest blog post. Brian Clark was hyping people up to his impending launch of Lateral Action at the end of his Copyblogger posts (and possibly others) long before the website was launched.

Vanessa was using Nine by Blue branding on presentations with a link to her feed while the website was still in development. Lisa Barone let you know she might be blogging on her own domain before she ever even wrote a post.

Being in development certainly hasn’t stopped anyone from developing links and buzz in traditional media, and it shouldn’t stop webmasters either. Just be sure to remember that there is a difference between hype and buzz. You want to develop the latter and not the former.

Guest Appearances

Every time a starlet has a new movie at the box office or a band has a new album on the shelves, they start making the “guest appearances” rounds. And while they definitely aim for the highest exposure possible, like daytime television shows or late night TV, they don’t pass up radio appearances, autograph appearances and local newspaper or magazine interviews either.

Bloggers can get “guest appearances” by doing guest posts, offering interviews if their name or company name is recognizable, doing podcast or internet radio appearances and any other opportunity to put their new blog in front of people. Aim high but don’t overlook low hanging fruit either. When you’re just starting out, even a blog with only 100 people reading it offers you access to 100 people you’re not currently reaching.

For more established blogs, a general rule of thumb might be that anyone with more subscribers than you or a different, but related, market you’re not currently reaching is worth working to obtain a “guest appearance” on.

Sponsorships and Buzz Events

I’ve seen plenty of instances where video games or movies will sponsor larger events or create specific buzz events (many might call them launch parties) aimed at gaining interest. For instance, the video game “Gears of War 2″ recently sponsored UFC 91, whose fan base is heavily comprised of their target market.

Bloggers can do the same thing by stepping up to sponsor a contest in their target market – even if they’re completely new to the scene. Buzz events many times, to me anyway, can be correlated to “link bait”… if I’m going to launch a blog, I’m going to make sure I have a few really strong and very well done “buzz pieces” ready to go with the aim of getting social media attention and being put in front of potential readers.

The words “link bait” tend to have a negative connotation online, but I see no difference between a “buzz event” offline and a piece of “link bait” online. Both are lame when done wrong and can be amazingly effective when done right.

Street Teams

A “Street Team” is best defined by Wikipedia:

“In many cases, an influential teen referred to as a neighborhood “tastemaker” was sought out or pinpointed by a record label to be used as a conduit to their respective neighborhood, due to their stronger influence over other teens that looked to them for “what’s hot” or “what’s the next hot thing”. The tastemaker was directed to create a team on the streets to make an unsigned music artist more popular through word-of-mouth and hype.”

Replace “influential teen” with “popular or semi-popular bloggers” and you’ll quickly see that a Street Team is equivalent to an offline Linkerati. Instead of writing posts that are distributed to followers via an RSS reader, they create buzz about events by plastering the streets with posters and talking to everyone they come into contact with to promote the band.

“Usually unpaid, street teams for bands and artists are still often comprised of teenagers who are rewarded with free band merchandise or show access in exchange for a variety of actions.”

Street teams place stickers and posters in their communities while the Linkerati put up buttons and badges promoting your blog. Street teams bring friends to the shows while the Linkerati sends links of your first few initial kick ass posts to friends or in round up posts.

Street teams convince friends to buy band merchandise while the Linkerati convinces people to sign up for your blog RSS feed. Street teams phone your local radio station to request the band’s songs be played while the Linkerati submits your posts to social media websites and send around the link to friends they know have accounts.

Street teams bring vinyl and CDs to local DJs in the clubs where they work while the Linkerati link to your blog from larger websites they may do columns for. Street teams put up posters while the Linkerati showcases you and your blog via individual blog posts. Street teams post to band forums and bulletin boards online while the Linkerati do the same.

Street teams can make (or break) many bands and the Linkerati can do the same. Bloggers can rally the people they know love their content or their product offerings and organize them via personal emails to be their street team on the web. If you’re starting out with no contacts, then you might consider finding services that connect you with a “street team” (you’d just better be sure you have something worth promoting before you do).

If you have any other legit techniques for promoting a brand new blog, feel free to add to the list below. And if you liked this post, be a member of my street team and pass it on. ;-)

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

How to Promote a Brand New Blog

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

How to Promote a Brand New Blog

Before I go any further in this post, I’d like to make a few things crystal clear. I was not given a “review copy” of Thesis. I bought the theme. I forget where I’d first heard about it, but I believe it was a tweet by copyblogger.

I saw it, liked it, bought it, tweaked it and played with it. I like the theme… thus why I am using it, went back and bought a developers license so I can use it on other sites and you’re damn right I am linking to it with affiliate links.

Ok, with that out of the way, I really think thesis is the best “in the box” WordPress theme I’ve ever come across, though I still have a few wants on my wish list for future upgrades.

For someone who doesn’t get a lot of php and hacks their way through WordPress themes, Thesis will give them a lot of functionality they wouldn’t be able to obtain for themselves otherwise by being able to make changes via a simple control panel instead of having to alter any actual WordPress code (click the images below to see larger versions).

You can tick a box that allows you to use either the default css theme or your own custom css file and you can also “tell Thesis” to replace all of the generic links to your rss feed in WordPress with your Feedburner one (though I totally admit to hacking this in by hand myself because I am weird like that).

Thesis also allows you to pick and choose which “pages” you display instead of utilizing a code that simply displays anything you designate as a page. It also allows you to mix and match pages and blog categories in the top navigation header and even allows you to add links to outside sites. If you want to remove the author name or dates of your postings from the template, add tags to your template or anything else along those lines, you can simply un-tick the box. you can even insert your Google Analytics or Mint tracking code… all right from the control panel, complete with a “big ass save button” – no, really.

My favorite part of the Thesis theme is the Multimedia Box (see the top of this page where the 300X250 Thesis ad is), which you can change to rotate between pictures, embed video or even include custom code for all those folks that want to show advertising in that area.

Big deal… most themes have spots for advertisements. Yeah, but what made Thesis stand out to me is that I can change what appears in that area on a page by page basis if I want to. For example, you’ll notice my homepage has an ad for SEOBook.com, while this page has an ad for Thesis. Since my guide to small business SEO gets a lot of traffic from small business owners, that page shows an ad for Yahoo Search Marketing.

I’m able to override the base choice I’ve made of what to show in that area for the majority of my site pages/posts in the Thesis control panel, all without ever having to touch a drop of code in the WordPress templates by utilizing the custom key option on the specific page or post.

If you view the photo above, you’ll see I was able to select the “custom” key I defined in the Thesis control panel and “override it”and insert specific code to replace the normal “custom” key, only for this post. This allows me to target my advertising on specific pages, especially higher traffic ones.

Imagine you own an SEO blog but get a lot of traffic from people searching for routers due to a one off post you did… with Thesis, you can change your advertising on that single page to be router related without forcing you to rely on webmaster welfare to do it for you.

Can you use custom fields without Thesis? But of course. You can do everything Thesis does without putting down any money buying the theme. Hell, you could also do this with wordpress if you knew how to (yes, no shit).

Now, you might be someone who can do all this without buying Thesis.

However, I am not. So I bought Thesis.

Now, is Thesis all unicorns and rainbows? No.

I have a few gripes and a wish list for future upgrades I’d like to see added to the theme, including:

1. The default template doesn’t include the category that the post was made in and doesn’t have a simple control panel check box to enable on. If a user lands on one of my Facebook posts from Google, I’d like them to be able to see the post is in a Facebook category so they can see all my Facebook posts should they choose (yes, I get that it is still in the sidebar, don’t care).

2. You can’t access the custom style sheet through the WordPress theme editor. So, if you use the custom css (rather than the default one), which I’d imagine most professional bloggers would, you actually have to edit it offline and then ftp it back to the server to make any changes to it. I’d much rather edit it the same way I do everything else relating to the theme.

3. While the design and theme are very SEO friendly, and I might even go as far to say it is the most SEO friendly theme I’ve ever seen “in a box”, it is not perfect and it does lean a little heavy in implying it is doesn’t need anything “extra” in regards to plugins or the like for SEO reasons. So, if you do buy and use Thesis, I’d recommend the following “enhancements” (at minimum) to Thesis’s great base for SEO friendliness to turn it into SEO excellence:

• SEO title tag (Thesis lets you change post/page title tags without this plugin, but it doesn’t let you change titles of category pages)
• RSS footer
• Permalink redirect
• Custom query string
• WordPress breadcrumbs
• SEO slugs
• Robots meta

4. I’d like to see an option to enable/show social media buttons in the Thesis control panel. I’d love to tick off Digg, Delicious and Stumbleupon boxes and have the graphics (or text links) show up nicely and properly coded to work. An option to check off a box to enable a div to make the Digg plugin (or something like it) nicely align with your text (like it does here) without having to actually touch the design template (installing a plugin and checking a box is so much easier).

5. The ability to create a nice contact form for yourself without actually having to know any code would also be awesome.

6. Adding things to the sidebar is a breeze since the theme is widget enabled. However, the widgets do not accept any php. So if you have something utilizing php in your sidebar, you’ll either have to hack the template in the code or go without it. I’d like to see this become a non-issue in the next release.

7. I’d like the ability to specify a specific advertisement to a category or archive page, not just individual posts and pages.

However, even with my gripes and wish list, I still think Thesis is the best out of the box solution I’ve seen in regards to a blog theme. Easy to use, pretty damn customizable and when you see them say over and over on the Thesis sales page that the support is awesome, they ain’t lyin’. And all future upgrades/releases of the theme are free.

So if you kick ass at php and can do all this customization yourself by utilizing your mad coding skillz, rock on. If you’re like me and well, can’t, then Thesis might be a solution. The ad targeting features alone for the professional (or semi-professional) blogger should easily make up the cost of buying the theme to begin with if you’re getting any decent traffic.

Edited to add: Let me know if you guys like the product reviews. I sometimes find good stuff (like Thesis) among all the flat out crap I try (and buy, sigh). I’ll share more of the good stuff if you’d like.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

A Review of the Thesis WordPress Theme

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

A Review of the Thesis WordPress Theme

After an argument discussion with the “why the hell would you change your url structure when you don’t have to” whore late last night, I decided to completely flip the Sugarrae site to a new url structure. As anyone who knows me will tell you, once I make a decision, I do it. I managed to change the blog around faster than Lindsay Lohan was able to get her dealer on speed dial when she checked out of rehab.

With some help from Reese to implement some design changes I needed to go along with the change, the change has been completed. To address why I did it, as well as some of the changes that went along with it, I decided to do a post to explain my reasoning. I’ve been wanting to do the change for a while, but always put it off. Then I ran into something and figured it was time to simply get it over with.

When I originally came out with the magazine style format, I didn’t care about anticipate some of the problems that would come with it. The post title pretty much strikes what those issues were, but I’ll give full disclosure in case the “why those were issues” is not super obvious. ;-)

The split link popularity issues…

I always recommend people not use “enter here” pages because it serves to ultimately split your link popularity to the homepage. For example, when a site uses a “enter here” graphic on their / homepage and once you click, you go to /secondhome.html – some people are going to link to the enter here page of the site and some people will link to the /secondhome.html of your site instead. It serves to split your “home page” link popularity between the two pages instead of having the links condensed to have one strong homepage.

Additionally, “enter here” pages usually have little text and less phrases and indicators with which to rank. I never saw the / of the new version of Sugarrae as an “enter here” page, but users seemed to. My inbound links became split between / and /blog/ as people linked to both versions when linking to the site or mentioning my name. This caused the toolbar pagerank of the homepage to drop to a five while the toolbar pagerank of the /blog/ page soared to a six. Combining the power of the two was an obvious move to me.

The Technorati rank issues…

This one drove me absolutely nuts since the month after the /blog/ launch. My / was static and outside of wordpress. Well, technorati considered / and /blog/ as two seperate sites. So, not only was my link popularity split, but my “technorati rank” was as well. The / of the site had an authority in the upper one hundreds and a rank of about 30K. The /blog/ of the site had an authority in the upper two hundreds and a rank of about 14K.

I contacted Technorati about this numerous times. While they were able to do some sort of override so that doing a search on either url brought up both in the results, the ranks remained split. I was told the only way to “combine” the ranks was to have the blog in the root. I’m a very anal person and this simply drove me insane. After doing the switch last night, technorati updated by the time I woke up this morning, finally combining the two “site” values giving the overall site an authority score in the high three hundreds and a technorati rank of under 10K.

The full feed issues…

The main page of the magazine style Sugarrae site used a script to generate the homepage from the Sugarrae feed. When I finally decided to switch to full feeds using complete rss for the sake of the people emailing me every single week to complain that I was indeed not using full feeds, it messed up the homepage of the site and was displaying full posts instead of snippets there as well. So, I had to flip it back to normal and continue to receive the email complaints.

Now, sure, I could have used the static homepage option in wordpress that had come out in a version earlier – but because it hadn’t been set up that way to begin with, any change I made to the status quo would have required a url structure change. And sure, I could have hired someone to create a workaround, but I have too much to do to manage another thing.

And when less than five percent of my traffic comes from search engines ([sarcasm] surprising considering the awesome keyword targeted titles I use [/sarcasm]), the engines can kiss my ass. I’m doing the option easiest for me. And that was moving the blog into the root and creating a monster htaccess to facilitate the change. When the search engines figure it out, so be it. I’ve done my part in leaving them detailed instructions. ;-)

So, if you were pissed about the lack of full feed, you can now be elated that full feed is now available. Also, if you happen to link to my blog, please update your links to link to the root of the site now.

I also made a few other changes to the blog. The social networking category has now been renamed Facebook because let’s face it, that is the only social networking site I have any inkling to write about. In addition, the seo consulting page has also been changed to reflect a list of providers that I’m glad to recommend people too. Bottomline the little amount of time I spent consulting is not only even less now, the time that is alloted to it is pretty much unavailable. I also added the top posts sidebar from the main page to the blog navigation.

Last but not least, the other big and noticeable addition is that I’m going to see how the whole “advertising” thing works on this blog. Upon making a mention to a friend I was considering the addition, I received an email from the people over at the Aviva web directory (who by the way have a pretty damn good set of articles – my first run in with their site was due to their ten laws every blogger should know post) saying they wanted to grab the first slot. I’m not sure how the whole advertising thing sits with me and in the current design width, the amount of ads I will show is very limited. So, we’ll see how it goes and if I keep it. Note to advertisers: do not contact me if your site or service is unrelated or shit because I will not advertise it.

So now you’re caught up on the blogging administrative changes and reasonings… back to the regularly scheduled programming.

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Split Link Pop, Technorati Rank and Full Feeds

This post originated at the Sugarrae online marketing blog, home to online marketing consultant Rae Hoffman.

Split Link Pop, Technorati Rank and Full Feeds