SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

There are a growing number of small business owners from personal fitness consultants to professionals like lawyers and doctors that are getting online everyday with one common goal which is to have a website that is stylish, quick and easy to use and that they can update themselves without necessarily needing help of a web designer or webmaster. Today I will be talking about this with respect to using WordPress to first create the website but having said that there are many other platforms that people can use to run their websites.

Your problem

As I said the main problem that most people run into when they are interested in starting a website is that they simply don’t have the skills to design and load an excellent website quickly and easily. Don’t let that stop you! Some people pay for the skills of a web designer only to realize that they are no further ahead by the time they are done because they don’t have the understanding or ability to make changes when they want. It’s frustrating, seems to complex but don’t give up!

Your Solution

Using a website building platform like WordPress you can usually figure out how to install the software quickly and easily with a Quick 5 minute installation guide provided by in the case WordPress on any web hosting that you’ve purchased and once this is done you can start deciding what you want your site to look and feel like. We’re almost there.

Your Choice

Now for the fun part of starting a website is that you can choose the look of it. The easiest and most cost effective way to get a look you want is to use a website theme or template. Depending on how much you are looking to spend on a website theme or template your money can go a long way when choosing to buy one of these pre-designed, pre-built website templates or themes. WordPress, for instance, has a large number of templates available online today, a lot more then when I first started using WordPress and since I am covering how to a personal website using WordPress here are some favorites.

WordPress Theme Name: WooThemes Antisocial Premium WordPress Theme

WordPress Theme Description: “Antisocial was one of our most anticipated themes yet. Designed by Tim Van Damme Antisocial is the perfect online business card and personal blog theme to aggregate all your online profiles in a beautiful slick and unique design.”

WordPress Theme Vendor: WooThemes

Created By: Tim Van Damme

Amazing Features Include:

• Ability to add vCard and hCard contact details
• Supports localization in case you are looking to publish the website in another language then English
• Neat AJAX calendar widget (plug-in required)

Sticking Points:

- It is a very personal theme and depending on your branding, if you are a professional, it may not make the cut for you

Price/Costs:

Standard WordPress Theme is $70.00

Developer WordPress Theme is $150.00

WordPress Theme Name: Thesis

WordPress Theme Description:  “The Thesis Theme for WordPress is a high-quality template system that you can use to improve your site immediately .”

WordPress Theme Vendor: DIY Themes

Amazing Features Include:

• Ability to fine tune each page of your site
• Thesis options panel allows users to customize and control your site easily
• Pinpoint Font Controls

Things to consider:

- This theme allows the user to do a great deal of customization so depending on your skill set you may or may not use all the features that this theme boasts

Price/Costs:

Personal Option Theme is $87.00

Developer’s Option Theme is $164.00

WordPress Theme Name: WP Remix Premium WordPress CMS Theme

WordPress Theme Description:  “ WP Remix a WordPress powered master theme, is completely customizable, quality coded & comes bundled with many layout options that helps everyone create custom websites in minutes saves weeks of time, maintaining top notch standards – compliant quality.”

WordPress Theme Vendor: WP Remix

Amazing Features Include:

• Documented Theme PDF Guide included!
• Over 50 Page Templates ready to use
• Free Technical Upgrades on feature versions of this WordPress theme

Things to consider:

- This theme has a lot of functionality built into it which is normally a good thing but some users depending on their skill set may have problems using the more complex features to their benefit

- It is a priced at $75 for the Single Use license which is a very reasonable price but having said that there are less expensive themes so doing your homework before you buy a website theme is important

Price/Costs:

Single Use License is $75.00

Multiple Use License is $275.00

Together the WooTheme Antisocial , Thesis and WP Remix Premium WordPress themes present some solid options depending on what you what in terms of functionality, style, customizability and overall usability. There are a ton of different website theme vendors out there so researching and thinking about what you want in a personal website is “key” when you make a buying decision about a website theme or template you run your website. I hope that this article solves some of your problems or clears up some of your concerns when selecting a WordPress Theme for your own website. Happy web designing!

Luc Arnold

I decided to write this article for the “Do It Yourself” audience out there that is looking to make their sites a little “spicier”!  With numerous themes and templates available at your finger tips the problem is not a lack of choice but rather too much choice.  Here are a few ways in which you can make the choice of a web theme or template a little bit easier.

What Platform is your website built on?

Depending on which platform you decide to build your site with there are many advantages to designing your website based on a pre-built web software platform like WordPress, Dural, Expression Engine, Magento and many others that are available to download and run for free.  If you’ve chosen the custom built path there are options out there for you to buy a website theme but they are usually harder to implement so your skill level with programming, customization and general website maintenance is more important with implementing a website theme or template.

Getting back to the “pre-built” option, once you know which platform you want to use on your site you can then start looking for website themes by searching in search engines like Google or checking out your favourite review site (wink wink).  Normally this option is less costly because if you know how to buy and implement a website theme or templates you can have a new look on your site in no time at all!  Another good reason for choosing a pre-built platform is that there is usually a larger developer community that posts fixes, monitors bugs and adds enhancements to the software faster than any custom work you are likely to have developed for you.

How much are you prepared to spend on a template?

Usually when you buy a website template for pre-built web software you are going to find that depending on which vendor you buy from that they are all pretty similar and yet each of them varies depending on what you are looking for.  Some people want support or unlimited updates on a web site theme or template; others want something that is inexpensive and built well. In either case you can bet that with a little searching online you are going to find a web site theme that is going to fit you just right. The price of website templates ranges from FREE to thousands of dollars depending on what you are looking for. Some of the website theme and template vendors that we showcase on SpicyWebDesigners.com include WooThemes, WP Remix, SilverThemes and StudioPress

How good are you with HTML/CSS, FTP and all that?

This is one of the big questions that many people who first start a website have about any sort of website theme or template they buy. Let’s face it, not everyone knows the ins and outs of coding HTML pages or how to upload web pages to an FTP server and depending on your skill level this can affect how quickly and easily you get your website up and running. After all that is why you bought a template to begin with, right?

Some potential problems with buying website themes & templates include…

1. Problems installing the web pages, templates and software
2. Issues with having to additional coding for the website theme or template to function as desired
3. Required knowledge of a scripting language like PHP, mySQL, JavaScript or another language to make changes to the layout of the site

Implementing web technologies sometimes come with their own host of issues and most times the best way to learn about anything is by working through the problems you are faced with. Think about the last thing that you learned and you’ll probably find that you learned something because of a problem that was put in your path. The same is true with web design and implementing website software like WordPress or Magento.

As a “Do-It-Yourself” web designer there are a number of things that you need to know. You may be an entrepreneur, the owner of a company, someone building their first website or blog or any number of other people out there looking to start a website. There is a lot to learn and whether you decide to hire a web designer or take the “DIY” route and learn the ins and outs for yourself.

Since Joost De Valk joined Brian and the team at StudioPress back in May of this year. I’ve definitely noticed that SEO is at the forefront of StudioPress themes when they release themes like the Magazine 1.0 WordPress Premium Theme.  Magazine 1.0 is the 5^th theme that he has been involved in optimizing since he started with StudioPress. One other theme that we looked at recently was their Education 1.0 theme which again has been optimized by Joost De Valk and is worth a look.

This theme is really meant for people running a magazine style of site.  A magazine type of site is denoted by the fact that it is a content rich site featuring a lot of information in a digestible manner like a “magazine”.

It includes a lot of great options to customize your version of the Magazine 1.0 theme including…

• Enhanced Theme Options – This is something special to the Magazine 1.0 Premium WordPress Theme that allows you to layout the site based on categories that you choose for particular areas on the theme itself. It’s very handy and useful for those of you starting off a site using WordPress
• Support for Localization – If you happen to be running your WordPress website on a language other than English the Magazine 1.0 theme supports localization which means that you can customize this theme to a specific language in no time flat.
• eNews & Updates available in the sidebar – This feature allows your audience to sign up for updates about your website using Google/Feedburner and is easily turned on or off in the theme options for the Magazine 1.0 Premium WordPress Theme

Browse Compatibility Impact

I had a chance to test the Magazine 1.0 Premium WordPress Theme in three major browsers including IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla FireFox and the results were solid as you can expect from StudioPress. I did not see any broken pages when comparing this WordPress Theme in these various web browsers.

Cost – How hard does it hit the wallet?

If your website currently runs the WordPress platform then this could be a great option for you to run a content based business. At a price of $59.95, the cost is nothing to complain about either. WordPress Themes in general will run anywhere from $15 to a few hundred dollars so this makes this theme pretty attractive. If you are new to WordPress and starting a website you may not get all of the benefits that a Premium WordPress theme has to offer and therefore this theme may not work for what you are looking for specifically.

Overall thoughts about the Magazine 1.0 theme

StudioPress has a strong WordPress development team in place and the Premium WordPress Themes that they produce are top quality. I am not just saying this because they’ve been optimized Joost De Valk, an SEO and online marketing expert but also because the elements of each theme are very strong and cohesive. Browser compatibility is also an issue that affects all websites whether you are having yours custom developed and designed or not and with the Magazine 1.0 theme we looked at it in IE, Google Chrome and Firefox and it passes with flying colors as it does not seem to break the style or pages of the site. As with all website themes that you buy the real issue is customization and that depends on your skill level. The Magazine 1.0 is highly customizable which is one of its great selling points but if you are starting a website and looking at this theme then it may still be a little out of your knowledge as to how to customize it to your liking. And lastly, with a price of $59.95 is a great price for a theme with as many features as this.

If you are in the ecommerce industry it’s natural to look to companies that are where you want to go and borrow functionality to implement into your own system. The team at Silverthemes.com, a vendor of premium Magento commerce themes, widgets and add-ons, have put together a great add-on called “Magento Vertical Menu” which they modeled on the functionality from Walmart.com.

Screenshot of Walmart.com Vertical Menu functionality

Screenshot of SilverThemes.com Vertical Menu functionality

Cons of using the Magento Vertical Menu add-on

Size of your ecommerce site – This add-on was really designed for online retailers looking for a better way to showcase a wide number of categories in a very ”user friendly” way. If you run a smaller ecommerce website with fewer categories the functionality may not benefit your business as much as using it on a larger ecommerce site with more products and categories.

Optimized to work with SilverThemes Magento Themes – Because SilverThemes built this add-on they have optimized it to work exclusively with their themes. If you buy another Magento Theme for your site from a different Magento Theme vendor it may be harder to implement and use this add-on for your business’ needs. This is not clear from SilverThemes.com as to how it will operate with another non-SilverThemes.com ecommerce theme but you can rest assured that SilverThemes.com is one of the best Magento Theme, Widget and Addon Vendors around currently.

Pros of using the Magento Vertical Menu add-on

Very Browser Compatible – I tested the Magento Vertical Menu add-on using Mozilla Firefox (3.0.12), IE (6.0.2900.2180) and Google Chrome (2.0.172.39). What I noticed in IE is that it takes longer for the mouse over to generate the Vertical Menu however once it pops up it works the same way as in the other web browsers mentioned. Usability in IE could be an issue as it is with most things JavaScript in IE.

Excellent Price – The price is very reasonable for companies that are looking to implement this functionality into their ecommerce website and this is an attractive feature for any company running Magento Commerce to support their online ecommerce sales channels.

Overall it’s a great add-on that SilverThemes team has developed and designed. The only concerns that can be raised about using this add-on with a Magento Commerce site are optimize issue and compatibility with IE and how it could affect the functionality of this add-on. The Magento Vertical Menu is available from SilverThemes.com and sells for a very reasonable price of $99.00. Check it out in action by clicking here.

With so many ecommerce platforms available today it can be hard to judge the good from the bad. Shopify is an ecommerce platform that is built on Ruby on Rails, has its own API and allows its users to customize their site using “Liquid” their own scripting language. Dimitri Onistsuk is the Vice President of Marketing at JadedPixel, the company that builds and develops Shopify, and I had a chance to ask him some questions about shopify.

“Liquid scripting” and “liquid files” are two terms that are unique to Shopify. Liquid is the customization engine that runs Shopify. In shopify you can write Liquid files using the Liquid scripting language. The language is a quick and easy way to customize according to Shopify’s documentation. The Liquid scripting and Liquid files is all a part of “Vision”, a way to design a shopify theme without needing a server to host it on while to design. Here is a conceptual diagram of how vision works…

1.  Where did the idea come from for Shopify?  Naturally with so many ecommerce applications around and i am wondering what is your strategic advantage to developing shopify the way you have?

Shopify was made by designers for designers. The reason is simply that before it became an e-commerce application it was a snowboard store. The founders of the company wanted an e-commerce solution but nothing lived up to their standards. Everything was clunky, or bloated or just inelegant, so the decision was taken to write a shopping cart for the store from scratch. When it was done, the end product was great and Tobi Lütke, Shopify’s founder and CEO, thought it might be a solution that other businesses could use and enjoy. A couple of years later Shopify came out to a very positive response, and we’ve been improving it ever since.

2.  I see that Shopify is based in Canada (Ottawa to be specific).  How do you support international customers integrating their businesses with Shopify?

Well, that’s the beauty of the wired world – Shopify is a solution that is usable by just about anyone, regardless of national context. The only limiting factor is how the stores process payment, which is why we support a large variety of payment gateways. This way it doesn’t matter if you’re starting a store in the U.S. or Switzerland or New Zealand.

3. How long has Shopify been around for?

Shopify just turned 3 years old at the beginning of last month! It was a very exciting time. We released the Shopify App Store and the Shopify API.

4. Any big plans in the works in the coming year for Shopify?

Well the biggest task we always face is to keep improving Shopify and make it the best e-commerce platform out there. The App Store is another major project. The response so far has been phenomenal and we’re going to be busy making sure the selection of apps is top-notch and helps customers get the most out of their store. We’re also working on WYSIWYG functionality and more than a few surprises.

5. For customers buying or trying out Shopify for the first time.  What would you like them to know and what special features should they check out when trying your ecommerce platform?

Shopify stands for two things: ease of use, and excellence in design. We want our customers to do what they want to do in the first place: sell their product. This is the guiding principle in everything we do which is why Shopify is a turn-key solution. We take care of all the technical aspects so you can just run your store. When customers see how quickly they can register and get a beautiful store running (less than 2 minutes – try it!), and how well the workflow integrates the various aspects of selling, they are sold.

6. Does shopify have any guides for web designers to integrate their designs with Shopify quickly and easily?

Yes, our wiki includes documentation on customization of your store. Each Shopify Theme consists of Liquid files. Liquid is our own scripting language, specifically developed for Shopify shops. It is very easy to learn and self explanatory. Basically, if you already have a design, you can copy and paste most parts right into your Liquid Files.

7. Why did you decide to develop Shopify’s architecture using Ruby on Rails?

We are a very design-heavy company. Aside from the purely technical reasons, Ruby is an amazing meeting of the minds for people that are both into design and programming. It also provides a great environment in the form of the open-source community that surrounds it, and that’s very important for Shopify.

If you are looking for an easily extendible ecommerce solution then Shopify may be for you. Because Shopify uses its own “Liquid” scripting language this may be too much to learn for some users but for the adventurous web developers, designers and business owners looking for something different then this may be a solution that meets your needs. Take it for a test drive and sign up for a trial account today!