When I originally reviewed OneStepCheckout, a Magento Commerce add-on that gives you the power to optimize your ecommerce website’s checkout process I covered the core product.  Recently they added some new features for registration options in OneStepCheckout that definitely improve how your customers can login when they purchase from you.

Registration Modes

In this update Magento website owners can use different modes to allow their customers to register when they checkout using OneStepCheckout including:

• Registration Required – Much like it sounds when you select this option your customers will need to register during the checkout process
• Registration Disabled – This gives any customer the option to checkout of your ecommerce website without needing to register
• Allow guests and logged in users – This mode offers your customers the option to check out as a guest meaning that you don’t need to create an account and previous customers to use their account to log in and purchase from you again
• Enable registration on success page – This mode gives your customers the option to create an account after they’ve checked out and are on the thank you page of your website
• Auto-generate account for new emails – This mode will create accounts for each new email address your customer enters during checkout which

In case you didn’t get a chance to read my original product review click here to read it! To read about more details that these new registration modes offer click here to see the article that the team at OneStepCheckout wrote about this on their blog.

After talking to Blair Williams and interviewing him the other week I was able to get my hands on a copy of Pretty Links Pro, a WordPress Plug-in that allows you to manage your links.  It’s the total link management package.

I’ve been using the free version of Pretty Links for a while and even the free version of Pretty Link is great and it boasts a lot of features making it the total link management package.  Originally I implemented the software to help put an end to affiliate link hijacking but I’ve found other uses for it recently allowing me to track links I post on my twitter account and other social media networking that I do currently.

Now for those of you those are new to the concept and practice of Link Management and aren’t sure exactly what it means it’s the management of links both inbound (coming to your website) and outbound (leaving your website).  Depending on how you choose to use Pretty Link it can be a very “eye-opening” experience.  When I created a pretty link and published it in a tweet on my twitter account I was surprised to see how many hits it received in only a few days.

Getting back to Pretty Link, first off, I am going to walk you through using the Pretty Link plug-in for the first time focusing specifically on how to create a pretty link and how to create a group for your pretty links.  With that, let’s get started!

Creating a Pretty Link

When you install Pretty Link it is available through the main dashboard and also through the “Settings” section in your WordPress website.  Once you get into the plug-in you can create a Pretty Link with a destination URL, which is a URL that you going to have people go to when they click on your Pretty Link, a title and description so that you can identify it in WordPress and your pretty link including a custom “slug” that you can add to the end of your pretty link.

There are additional options under the “Link Options [+]” section that allow you to choose a group that the pretty link belongs to, the ability to track the pretty link, the type of redirection you want to use (you have the option of 307, 301, Pixel, Cloaked and Pretty Bar) and SEO options for the links that you create.  When you’ve gone through all of this the last step is to simply click the “Create” button and you’ve got yourself a very pretty link.

Creating a Group for your Pretty Links

Creating a group using the Pretty Link plug-in allows you to categorize and group Pretty Links that you create for your website.  It’s useful if you are creating a great number of links in Pretty Link for different purposes and allows you to segment link management for your website.

Now that you know the basics of using Pretty Link let me take you through some of the benefits of upgrading to Pretty Link Pro for those of you that are interested in seeing what else this WordPress plug-in can offer you and your website.

Advantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

• Replacing URLS – This is a feature that is not currently available in the basic Pretty Link plug-in so you will need Pretty Link Pro for this functionality.  This particular functionality allows you to replace URLs with your pretty link and it’s very useful if you’ve got a large existing website and you are looking to update links quickly for specific affiliates or other link management activities.  Feel free to check out Blair’s video of how Pretty Link Pro accomplishes this by clicking here.
• Split Test your Links – Another great feature of setting up Pretty Link Pro is the ability to run split tests on your website also known as A/B tests.  Using the functionality built into Pretty Link Pro you can setup what are called “Target URL Rotations” for a link to test and see which page performs better.
• Rotate your target URLs – This feature much like it sounds allows you to “rotate” target URLs for ad rotations, A/B split tests and partnerships.
• Set up Conversion Reports – Conventionally conversion tracking is used when a sale is made online but conversions also relate to clicks, hits or a sign up for a mailing list.  Pretty Link Pro allows you to do this with your links and it really does give you intelligence over your website’s link management.

I could literally talk in greater depth about each feature but if you are looking for a great link management plug-in then this is one to definitely check out because it boasts and delivers so much functionality.

Disadvantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

This plug-in offers so much functionality that you may never use all of it.  The real disadvantage for people using this plug-in is that it caters to those people looking for ultimate link management and if you are a newbie then you may not understand everything this plug-in offers.

Reasons to buy this Plug-in

If you are looking to get a very comprehensive link management plug-in than you really need to check out Pretty Link and Pretty Link Pro.  I love the fact that you are able to import and export data to and from Pretty Link Pro, create custom reports and get access to advanced link management options when you purchase Pretty Link Pro.  Here are a few reasons that this plug-in is worth the money for those of you considering it.

• Help put an end to losing affiliate commissions
• Track links you post on social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Track specific links on your website to test their success
• Setup split testing to see which landing page performs better and allows you to earn more profits

Those are 4 really great reasons why you won’t be disappointed when you buy this plug-in.  It’s worth the investment to have this plug-in working for you on your website.

How much does it cost?

If you are looking for a WordPress plug-in that is going to give you the capabilities of link management like this one does the money, $97, which gives you unlimited updates and support on the plug-in is completely worth the money you are going to spend.  After all, it’s the links on your website that are going to make your business, site or blog more successful over time so how can you not invest in this?

Click here to read a little more about Blair Williams’, Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plug-in, click here!

Anyone who goes online today uses job boards to find work, to find employees and to advertise job postings to interested candidates.  The web has become a part of how we search for work from freelance to full time and it only continues to grow.  Templatic recently released a WordPress Theme for those of you looking for a Theme that doubles as a Job Board called Job Board.

Templatic (formerly PremiumThemes.net) in recent months has started to produce WordPress Themes that by nature are website themes but with specific functionality built into them and even recently when they released their, Store WordPress Theme, their first ecommerce WordPress Theme it became clear that they are looking to target niche users such as people looking to start a job board whether it’s for their own recruiting business, something open to the public online job seekers or private as a part of an internal company job board.

So, getting back to the product review, this theme offers a good deal of functionality specific to running a job board including a general job posting list layout, category specific job posting lists, job search functionality, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds to syndicate your job postings and a whole host of other features packed into the Job Board WordPress Theme.

So what makes this WordPress theme a great WordPress theme and why should you spend the money on this theme?  Well, for that you’ll just have to continue reading…

What makes the Job Board WordPress Theme great!

• Accept PayPal payments – If you are running job boards on the web than you want the option of accepting payments when people post a job on your job board and with the Job Board WordPress Theme now you can!
• Set job postings to automatically expiry – When you purchase this WordPress theme you can set postings to automatically expiry and save them as a draft of delete them.  This is a pretty useful function of this particular theme because if you are charging people and companies for job postings then having a way to remove them automatically will save you time allowing you to work on more important things.
• Displays recent listings on the dashboard – This is a useful function for the administrator of the website which shows the admin the recent listings that were added to the job board and the dates that they were added to the job board.

What makes the Job Board WordPress Theme NOT so great!

• It’s specifically designed to work as a job board – Because this WordPress theme is built to function as a job board you may be disappointed if you are buying it for any other reason than this.  If you are looking to do anything else with it that I would suggest searching for a theme that has what you need in terms of functionality.

Outside of that there isn’t anything else that I can say about this WordPress theme that’s really negative.  The speed and performance of the job board theme is very solid and browser compatible.

Our Product Rating

Cost:

9.5

Support and Documentation:

8.0

Usability:

7.0

Web Browser Compatibility:

8.0

Overall:

8.1

SpicyWebDesigners.com rates products on a scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being the worst and 10 being the best. A typical product review includes looking at Cost, Support and Documentation, Usability, Web Browser Compatibility (using Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer).

Why is buying this theme a good idea?

The Job Board Theme is really a strong WordPress theme and if you are looking for the ability to create and run a job board then this theme will deliver what you need it to do.  It allows you to accept payment for jobs that people want to post using PayPal, allows you to set up expiry settings on job postings and has a lot of other functionality built into it to help you build your own job board successfully

How much does it cost?

The single use license for this theme will cost you $65 and gets you the Job Board WordPress Theme from Templatic.  It includes the standard features like access to documentation and the single use license is only available to be used on 1 website.  If you are looking to use this theme on multiple website then checkout their multiple license for $99 which gives you everything the single use license does and more including access to the PSD (Photoshop Document) files.

If you are a fan of Templatic then consider paying for access to their theme club for $279 (regularly a $399 value) for an unlimited access membership to all the WordPress Themes that they produce over the next year.

Normally when I think of Ecommerce websites I don’t think of WordPress.  WordPress, after all, is primarily a content management system, so when I saw that Templatic had released “Store”, their Premium Ecommerce WordPress Theme yesterday I was interested in checking it out.  Now is this theme going to run a mid-sized to large ecommerce operation for a company? Probably not!  But if you are a company with a few dozen products in various product lines this is a definite possibility for your ecommerce operations.  Let’s take a more in depth look at it…

Major Selling Points of the “Store” Ecommerce WordPress theme

• Different Modes to sell – This theme offers currently 3 different modes that you can run an ecommerce website using WordPress including selling digital goods, using a standard shopping cart and catalog mode.  Let me explain each of these different modes in more detail.

Digital Goods – If you run a business selling “digital goods” like eBooks/PDFs, scripts, licenses, memberships, etc. this theme can not only help you sell your digital goodies but also control the style of the product pages and the buying experience your customer’s will see when they buy from you.

Shopping Cart – Much like this one sounds, you can give your customers the option to use a shopping cart to checkout of your ecommerce website so that they can enter shipping information, change product attributes like Style, Size or Color and complete a purchase of goods with your store.

Catalog Mode – This allows you the option to display the products on your website and require interested customers to contact you instead of accepting payments online.  This mode does NOT allow your customers to purchase things from your store and if your business pricing is subject to change or requires further feedback to quote interested customers you can use the Catalog mode to get them interested and generate leads.  This mode is not for every business owner out there but it’s really nice to see this option being including in this theme.  It’s not something that I expected to see in this ecommerce theme.

• Get your Coupons! – This theme allows you to create coupons with coupon codes to offer discounts when someone enters the coupon code during the checkout.  It’s a great feature to have if you are promoting your business.
• Bulk CSV Uploads – If you are looking to add multiple products at a time this theme will actually allow you to do this using a CSV (.csv) file.  Simply create a CSV file and upload it to WordPress and the Store ecommerce WordPress theme will do the rest.
• Solid Web Browser Compatibility – I tested this theme in Google Chrome, FireFox 3.x and Internet Explorer 6.x and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I couldn’t find any bugs with this theme.
• You can still blog! – Another good thing to point out is that you can run a blog for your company.  Since WordPress is the premier blogging platform out there it only makes sense that Templatic kept the functionality and definitely adds something to the fact that you are getting an ecommerce site with blogging capabilities because most ecommerce platforms don’t have this functionality available and most blogging software doesn’t allow you to run an ecommerce website with this many features.

Click here for a full list of features that Templatic’s Store Premium Ecommerce WordPress Theme gives you!

Major “Minuses” of the “Store” Ecommerce WordPress theme

• It wasn’t built for scalability – Don’t get me wrong.  This is a strong ecommerce theme that you can use on WordPress but it isn’t going to give all the features of an enterprise level ecommerce platform and if you are a larger scale ecommerce operation then it may not be fully scalable to meet your needs.
• CRM not included – Many ecommerce packages out there have the ability to store customer data but only a few actually have “full blown” CRM system.  A CRM system for those of you who don’t know what it is stands for “Customer Relationship Management” and allows you to manage your customers and market, view activities of specific customers and other data related to your customer base.  The store theme had limited capabilities to store customer data and if you are looking for an ecommerce solution that doubles as a CRM this may not be what you had in mind without a heavy amount of customization and cost on your part.
• Shipping Limitations – While you have the option to set shipping options with the Store WordPress Theme if you currently have shipping integrations with say FedEx, UPS or another shipping service it won’t be easy to integrate this into the theme without customizing the theme further.  Personally, this is something that you see in more “enterprise” ecommerce solutions so I am not surprised that it isn’t included in this theme but it would still be nice to see.

Our Product Rating

Cost:

9.5

Support and Documentation:

9.0

Usability:

7.5

Web Browser Compatibility:

8.5

Overall:

8.6

SpicyWebDesigners.com rates products on a scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being the worst and 10 being the best.  A typical product review includes looking at Cost, Support and Documentation, Usability, Web Browser Compatibility (using Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer).

Why should you buy this theme?

This is a great ecommerce WordPress theme when you look at the functionality.  Click here for a full list of features that the Store ecommerce WordPress Theme has.  I really like the fact that you can sell digital goods, use the shopping cart for physical goods and develop a catalog for customers to contact you directly.  This meets the needs of a lot of business owners looking for an affordable, “Do-It-Yourself” entry level solution and because it doesn’t require lots of money and offers terrific functionality it makes a highly adaptable theme for your online or physical business.

How much is it?

The Single Use License will cost you $65 and gets you the Store Ecommerce WordPress Theme.  You can only use this theme on one website but you’ve got access to the member access area to help you customize your theme and you also have access to detailed theme tutorials.  This is something I’ve always liked about Templatic’s WordPress Themes (formerly PremiumThemes.net); they support you past the initial sale and show you how and where you can customize it.

The Multiple Use License costs $99 and with this you get access to all the things mentioned in the single use license except you get the PSD files (Photoshop Documents) and you can deploy it an unlimited number of times.

And if you really like the themes that Templatic has, paying the fee of $279 (regularly $399) for unlimited access to Templatic’s Theme Club is well worth the money.  It gives you access to all the themes Templatic offers plus any new themes coming out.  It’s their best deal by far.

Many professionals today are using the web in new and interesting ways to promote themselves, their businesses and build a “network” for their businesses.  I ran across AgentPress which is a premium WordPress theme designed with the Real Estate professional in mind.

AgentPress was developed by the team at StudioPress whom I’ve had a chance to review in the past with some of their other Premium WordPress Themes.  AgentPress is not only a Premium WordPress Theme but also offers people who purchase the theme the chance to have it professionally installed and optimized for SEO with the latest and greatest WordPress plug-ins including the “All-in-one SEO Pack”.  I had a chance to look at the “inner-workings” of this website theme in action and review the pros and cons of the AgentPress WordPress theme.

What I love about the AgentPress Theme

Someone did their homework – It seems like someone did their homework about the Real Estate profession in general and applied it to this theme.  That’s the truly great thing about the AgentPress WordPress Theme.  From the page layout for multiple agent real estate firms to the “Featured Properties” content areas that are available on the main page.

Professional Image – Being professional calls for a website that can deliver a professional image and this WordPress Theme definitely does that from the header of the website down to the footer.  I like the fact that you can add your personal biography of people working at your organization with this theme.

The “Property Search” Widget – Now this is a cool feature that this theme offers.  When visitors come to your website after you’ve installed and are using AgentPress your visitors will be able to “Search by Price”, “Search by Type”, “Search by Location” and “Search by Bedrooms”.  From there you can set up listings for properties for sale that are in a certain price range, real estate based on its location which the search pulls by going through your website.  It’s some very useful functionality that could be applied to other sales professionals from automotive sales, specialty equipment or machinery just to name a few examples.

Not your “average” contact form – The contact form is also customized to grab specific information that someone looking for a real estate agent would give such as “Budget for purchasing a home”, “Reason for contacting” as well as the standard contact information.

Things that I don’t like about the AgentPress Theme

When I was reviewing this WordPress theme I had trouble finding flaws with it.  It’s a solid, standup theme and the only thing I can say is that it’s specifically gearing towards real estate agents so it may not fit your specific needs without some serious customization for your own business’ needs.  Naturally if you are going to buy a website theme like this some you are going to end up customizing it for your needs but if you are looking at this theme as the “be all” and “end all” for you this is something that could affect you putting together a great website.

3 Reasons why you should run out and buy the AgentPress Theme

Here is a short list of 3 reasons that you should buy this theme…

1. The “property search” widget is awesome and very useful
2. The functionality is very well aligned with the goals of the website theme
3. The ability to customize the theme for your needs

How much does it cost?

There are 3 pricing points that depending on what you are looking for offer 3 different options for the AgentPress Theme cover a wide range of solutions to fit your needs.  I’ve broken them down for you to understand what you are actually paying for depending on the option that you choose.

The AgentPress Theme costs $99.95 will get you the WordPress Theme, access to the support forums should you need any help with customizing your theme or any problems you are running into and the ability to enhance your website’s layout fast and intuitively.

The AgentPress Basic Package costs $199.95 and gives you some more options including WordPress installation (they will install it for you!), basic WordPress plug-ins (Akismet, Feedburner feedsmith and WP Database manager) as well as theme demo account.

The AgentPress Premium Package costs $299.95 and is the best option for your money if you are not up for installing WordPress and the theme yourself.  It also includes premium WordPress plug-ins including the ones from the basic package and the All-in-one SEO Pack (which I recently reviewed here) and Google XML Sitemap Generator.  If you aren’t a “techie” than this is the package for you!