Slug Control
URL Control This is how to control the URL of any page in SwiftCMS websites, sometimes referred to as the “slug”. Note: if you’re reading this and not on SwiftCMS but using a raw installation of WordPress, you’ll probably need to adjust your “permalinks” which requires editing .htaccess in most cases. SwiftCMS residents – we’ve already done this for you to make life easy – along with over 100 other little things you don’t even know about. Anyway, it’s easy. You just need to know where to look – this graphic sums it up: Note: in many cases the entire permalink will say: Permalink: http://8005551111.SwiftWebDesigner.com/page-url-here The blue section, 8005551111.SwiftWebDesigner.com will get replaced with YourDomain.com automatically. That 800 bit is just a unique identifier for where the files actually reside, but don’t worry – the world (and Google / Yahoo / Bing / etc.) will see only yourdomain.com for the first part. Unhappy with the 2nd part (red above)? Just click … Continue reading
Youtube Tips
YouTube Tips: These are notes for myself, but I’ll make ‘em public so they can help you too, right? By the way, check out articles like this – stating, with reasonably reliable source verification – that Ray William Johnson is making over $80,000 a Month (!!!) off his YouTube channel – that’s $1,000,000+ a year for you back row seat kids. And that’s without endorsements, movie deals, etc. – as the web takes over TV, or at least more entertainment is distributed online, we’ll see bigger numbers, bigger stars, and more cross pollination with conventional media. I’m also predicting 2012 to be the breakout year for online video, led by a massive coming battle between Apple TV (relaunching, and spearheaded by Steve Jobs before his passing), Google TV, Playstation 4 / Sony [Update: Looks like Sony is out of this battle, but probably just waiting to see how the landscape plays out], and Microsoft (with it’s 360 / Kinect system). … Continue reading
Widgets
Widgets Widgets are like a bookshelf, and you can choose to put any book(s) you like in it. Here’s how to edit and use SwiftCMS’s / WordPress’s widget system. This page coming soon. Need it? Request it – we’ll wrap it up.
How to Add Video to WordPress
How to Add Video to WordPress + SwiftCMS This screencast covers how to add video from the simplest to more customizable / powerful methods, all of which are fairly simple. The methods are: Simple direct addition of a youtube link. Super simple. Not very customizable but fast and easy. Widgets (for sidebar, footer). Also very, very simple, fast, and a bit more customizable. In-Content Widgets + VTubeTools.com Snippets Plugin + VTubeTools.com Lightwindow Plugin. More customizable but takes a few steps and some attention. Note: In all cases we upload to youtube and embed from there. The upsides to this: (1.) It’s a “streaming server” vs. “progressive download” – meaning it optimizes to suit your bandwidth (2.) It plays on everything, regardless of flash installation, including iPhones and iPads. (3.) YouTube is the #2 Search Engine in the world, ahead of Yahoo and Bing, and thus having keyword-optimized videos on youtube is a traffic method in itself (4.) It is the simplest … Continue reading
Podcasting
How to Podcast Want the Quick Version? Follow this Step-by-Step Path and you can be done in minutes: Enable the plugin “Podcasting Plugin by TSG” AND the plugin “complete RSS”. The complete RSS fixes some little problems with WordPress’ RSS formatting, FYI. Be sure your “permalinks” are set to /%postname% . This will make your URLs shorter and simpler. Go to Settings >> Permalinks, click “custom”, and remove any extra defaults. Note: If one of our Swift consultants built your site, this is probably already done for you, but ensure it’s set to custom and /%postname%. This makes your URLs like YourSite.com/page-name instead of YourSite.com/post=123. Go to Settings >> Podcasting and just fill things out as best you can. Don’t overthink it, you won’t really break anything, it’s just labels for the most part here. Important! You MUST have a Post-Category called “podcast”. Just that. No more, no less, all lower case. Go to Posts >> Categories and add it. … Continue reading
Social Media Integration
Social Media Integration is automatically built into SwiftCMS / SwiftWebDesigner.com and just needs to be configured. Also included are reviews sites (i.e. Yelp, Google). Continue reading
Facebook Setup
Facebook Setup Continue reading
Multiple Languages
How to Set Up Multiple Languages in SwiftCMS: This is easy enough to set up, though be advised it doubles or triples your website maintenance, so it’s best used with smaller websites under 20 pages. Continue reading
Adding Twitter to your website is easy, and a one-time setup function. This is about 1 out of 10 on the difficulty scale as long as you pay close attention to the steps. You’ll only have to do this once. Done correctly, this will be a bi-directional integration, which means your twitter will broadcast / tweet a link to each article every time you post a new blog entry (a “Post”, not a “Page”), and if you choose, each tweet can even become a blog entry as well. This can get excessive if you use Twitter a lot, but if you don’t, it’s fine. Note that if you use Aweber ($1 trial here; this is a mass email / sequential autoresponder system), then Aweber can automatically push to Twitter, which in turn links to your newsletter on Aweber’s server, which should always include a link back to your website(s) of course – automatically building a tiny link-chain that helps your … Continue reading
