Review Site Templates/Tools/Plug-ins I Used

We believe in knowledge sharing. We hope you do too! Here are the tools used to create this review site.  Should you have queries, please let us know at BestInvoice@VATrainingOnline.com

Blog Platform| Wordpress

This is a state-of-the-art, very popular, blogging platform. Due to its popularity, there are tons of free themes and plug-ins available online.  If you want to set-up a personal site, you may simply get a free blog using the above link.  You will also find all the tutorials in there.  However, if you want to put up a business site (ie. for your Virtual Assistance Business), you should use your own webhost. Ps. You may find the list of wp-plugins  used near the bottom of this list.

 

Webhost| HostGator

This wordpress site is installed in HostGator. HostGator allows for unlimited Domains/Sub domains.  It provides excellent service and top notch solutions. It is the hosting we use for all of our websites. You may also use other hosts in establishing your review site. Just make sure they have cPanel/Fantastico or other one-click-Wordpress installation. This will save you a lot of trouble. No need to download wordpress and ftp. Just one click install!

 

ReviewEngine| WPReviewEngine

The traditional Wordpress theme does not allow you to easily manage reader ratings/rankings. There are wp-ratings plugins but functionality is extremely limited. This is why you need a review engine. Most review engines are very expensive. The affordable versions don’t fully work the way they are suppose to. WPReviewEngine is the best we’ve found so far. Easy to install. Easy to configure and customize.

 

Wordpress Theme| iNove

WPReviewEngine actually comes with a built in theme. The layout is good however it lacks critical widgets, plugins, and search functionality.  iNove is a beautiful, fully functional wordpress theme that works very well with WPReviewEngine. It has a minimalist style. When you install it, you can configure your WPReviewEngine to AutoEmbed the star ratings. It is also easy. You don’t need to do it manually. Click above link then scroll down until you find “iNove”.  iNove is free.

Most of wordpress you can grope around. But one thing which you may find challenging is to remove the default “COMMENTS ARE CLOSED” for those posts/pages that don’t need the Comments functionality. Here’s the workaround.

• Goto your INOVE folder. Look for COMMENTS.PHP
• Search for this line and take out the words “Comments are closed”

<?php if (!comments_open()) : // If comments are closed. ?>
<div class=”messagebox”>
<?php _e(’Comments are closed.‘, ‘inove’); ?>

• To remove the box, Goto your WP Dashboard – INOVE – STYLE.CSS
• Search for this line and delete configuration (highlighted in orange)

}
.messagebox,
.errorbox {
background:#EDEFF0 url(img/messagebox.gif) no-repeat;
padding:0 12px;
height:27px;
line-height:27px;
font-size:11px;
}

Logo| IconShock

 

 

IconShock is used all through out this site. IconShock is not cheap especially considering that you can get a lot of  icons for free online. But IconShock’s icons are so beautiful they are almost a work of art! They also have a lot of free icons. If you are lucky, you may get just what you need, for free! You may also use Iconseeker (Free). Just type what you are looking for (i.e. Smiley).

 

 

Business has only 2 functions – Marketing & Innovation | Peter Drucker

 

 

Email Handler| Aweber

Email marketing is such a critical component of online business. So email auto responders is one thing you cannot live without, if you want to be successful online. There are a lot of Auto-responders out there but the most popular one, and due to good reasons, is Aweber. It is not the cheapest in the market, but the price is definitely well worth the value. Aweber is very  easy to use and highly customizable. Features are powerful without being complicated. Do try it.

 

Poll/Survey| SurveyGizmo

All marketing gurus agree on the importance of having a customer feedback mechanism on your site. And the most effective & efficient way to do this is  via surveys/polls. We use SurveyGizmo in all our survey needs. It is elegant and at the same time easy to deploy.

 

Planning| Mindjet/Mindmanager

We use mindjet to map out all our research,contents and processes. It is not mandatory, but it does take project management to the next level. Once you’ve tried it, you can never live without it. Just try.

 

Wordpress Plug-ins …

• TinyMCE Advanced – formating paragraphs, spaces and tables in wordpress is unbelievably frustrating. TinyMCE addresses all these issues and keeps your sanity intact.
• Wordpress Gravatars – to enable gravatar functionality/ so people can see their photo when they comment
• WP-Print – Displays a printable version of your post/page
• Hover – Replaces keywords w/links and onmouseover popups
• Google Analytics for WordPress – to analyze site visits and other site metrices
• Google Ajax Translator – so readers can translate to their local language
• Askimet – to kickout spammers
• Tell-a-friend

Hope that helps!

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