FooPlugins WordPress and jQuery Plugins

The Big News!
We are very excited to announce that FooPlugins.com went live just hours ago! Head on over to see what we’re up to or keep reading for a little further info…

A Short History
As you may know, FooPlugins is the direct result of the success and experiences of our flagship plugin, FooBox. We’ve worked a lot of long hours in the past few months to make sure that we’re delivering high quality code, service, and support and also adhering to WordPress standards.

I am writing you this post from a hotel in Miami. Why? Because coinciding with our public launch, FooPlugins is also a Silver Sponsor for WordCamp Miami along with some other great sponsors.

If you’d like to stay tuned with what’s going on at the camp, make sure to follow the #wordcampmiami hashtag, they will be are streaming the sessions each day too…very cool.

FooPlugins.com (v1.0)
We currently have eight WordPress and jQuery plugins available. Free and Premium. Please be sure to stay tuned to our FooPlugins Blog as we will be announcing more releases this month, and each month thereafter.

Thank You and Coupon Code
Our entire team want to take this opportunity to thank you again for your interest in what we’re doing. We have been humbled by the great response so far and promise to continue working hard in providing the tools and services that you can use to succeed in your own businesses!

Please use coupon code FOOCAMPERS during checkout.

P.S. – Can I Ask a Favor?
If you like what we’re doing and feel that FooPlugins.com can be of benefit to your online community, we would be very grateful if you could help us spread the word by sharing us on your social networks, blog posts, or even screaming from the rooftop;)

Responsive HTML Tables

What Does FooTable Provide?

Have you ever wanted to show a lot of data in a table, but hate how badly it scales on smaller mobile devices? FooTable solves this problem by hiding certain columns on smaller devices, but still allowing the user to expand each row to see the columns that were hidden.

This simple WordPress plugin allows you to easily include and configure the FooTable jquery script into your site. Check out the homepage to learn more about FooTable and see some demos.

FooTable will also be available on FooPlugins.com starting on April 5th.

FooBox is Responsive and Social

What Is FooBox?

If you’re not familiar with FooBox, it’s allows you to make the images in your WordPress site open in fully responsive lightbox pop up windows. This means that any image you display is instantly re-sized correctly depending on the device that your visitor is viewing it from (desktop or mobile device).

More than that, FooBox also has a social sharing layer built-in that allows your images to be shared easily on many social networks (of your choosing).

FooBox Creators Announce FooPlugins

The team behind FooBox (and I am on that team) have officially announced the upcoming release of FooPlugins.com

FooPlugins is an expansion of their WordPress plugin product offerings. FooPlugins will offer both free and premium plugins, for WordPress and also jQuery.

We are going live on April 5th, but if you want to stay informed, please head on over and get on the email list to get notified when we launch.

We needed a way to organize, display and sell our products but we also had other ideas, including selling affiliate products.

What We Looked For:

• Needed multiple images per product
• Wanted large images
• Wanted the ability to mark as “SOLD”
• An easy way to include affiliates products
• Wanted it to visually match our blog

Then we found the ShopperPress eCommerce theme and it provided us with what we wanted plus so much more, including things we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. For example, there is a “Wishlist” and an “Add to Compare” option along with others I haven’t tried yet!

ShopperPress not only gave us the ability to sell our own products and add affiliate products, but there’s also an option for digital products!

We were able to provide our readers with the same tools we used in out tutorial blog by creating an Amazon store. If they need to buy a tool for a craft project that we recommended, the link in our tutorial sends them directly to our Amazon section of our shop!

Take a look at how easy it is:

1. Select ShopperPress in the menu
2. Then down to Import Products
3. Your affiliate info under Amazon Connection Settings on right.

Your Amazon Affiliate ID Screen

Adding an amazon product is easy!

1. Search Keyword (I’ll use our faithful glue called E6000)
2. Search Results appear on the right
3. Click on Add to Website under the product you want to add
4. Repeat the last 3 steps for each Amazon product – It’s that easy!

An Online Catalog?

How often have you checked out the website to a local store before heading over to buy something? I know I do it a lot. Using ShopperPress as an online catalog is just another way I use the software to my advantage and here is how…

Me and my partner often host a plant sale on our front lawn and we’ve built up a nice local client base this way. We send out emails to our customers letting them know when the sale is happening but another cool thing is they can also view our shop to see the types of products we have available without having to buy the products online.

Even when we aren’t holding a sale that day, our customers can view a product online at any time then give us a shout to say, “Hey, I’m on my way over to get that crazy plant! Please hold it!

Currently, our ShopperPress store is a bit low on our selection of plants but there’s a great reason… We sell them faster then we can add them to the store and that’s a very nice problem to have indeed!

Have a look at the ShopperPress WordPress eCommerce Theme Demo Now

Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan

Create a Plan

Flying by the seat of your pants is seldom the best strategy in business. To get the most out of your social media marketing, you should start out by creating a plan. Determine the goals you wish to accomplish with your marketing efforts, choose two to three social media venues to use and research how best to use them.

Interact with Followers

Social media marketing is about connecting and interacting with followers. These venues give you an opportunity to interact with the people who are subscribing to your blog and Tweets, or following you on Facebook and Pinterest. When you receive comments or questions, take the time to respond. Interacting with followers and subscribers helps build loyalty, while also letting people know there’s actually a person behind the business.

Choose Quality Over Quantity

As a small-business owner, it’s likely you have more tasks to accomplish in a day than you have time for. Don’t add pressure by worrying about posting, Tweeting and pinning every single day. Social media users who follow your posts will be more appreciative of content that adds value than excessive, useless posts. Employ your marketing strategies two to three times per week, using informative and interesting posts that encourage followers to interact with you.

Be Professional

Individuals using the various social media venues often use slang and casual language. This might be acceptable on a personal level, but never as a business professional. Avoid the temptation to use text language, profanity or slang when using social media. Know what the etiquette is for each venue you use and follow its rules. You’ll build a great deal more credibility for your business by always presenting yourself and your company in a professional manner.

Do More Than Promote

Although the point of social media marketing is to grow your business and expand your reach, you don’t want to promote incessantly or your efforts will be perceived as spam-like. In addition to letting followers know about your new product or service, provide them with informative how-to’s, community information or tidbits on subjects related to your business.

Starting off with productive, effective social media marketing strategies will set you on a course toward business growth and expansion. It’s more cost-effective and efficient to get started with social media marketing in this manner than to make mistakes and try to back-track. Use these tips as you add to your small business marketing plan. As you track the methods that work best for you, you’ll learn more about social media marketing and how to make it work for you.

Guest article by Mary Ylisela, who writes for Touchpoint Digital, a digital advertising agency that provides services in Social Media, Paid Search and Search Engine Optimisation.

Often this means using multiple plugins for different forms of visual media, doing numerous uploads, and navigating complicated workflows in order to get your images and videos to look their best. If you find this to be too time-consuming and complicated, we’ve discovered a gallery plugin that we think you’re going to love.

Image and Video Galleries in WordPress

MaxGalleria

MaxGalleria is an image and video gallery plugin for WordPress that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. This single plugin lets you manage both image and video galleries using the same workflow, making the experience streamlined and simple. In just minutes you can create and publis your gallery to your WordPress site.

Why We Love It

There are a number of features that we think set MaxGalleria apart from any other WordPress gallery plugin.  We’ve already mentioned that it allows you to manage images and videos using the same process, but here are a few more things that we love:

• Responsive Design—MaxGalleria galleries are fully responsive on any type of device, so that your users view your galleries the way they were intended to be viewed, no matter what device they’re viewing them from.
• WordPress Media Library Integration—MaxGalleria is fully integrated with the WordPress Media Library, which means you don’t have to re-upload images or videos that are already part of your WordPress site. And, because you’re using a well-known interface, it’s easy to learn.
• Streamlined Workflow and User Experience—creating and managing image and video galleries really doesn’t get any easier than MaxGalleria. The user interface is simple and straightforward, and is very similar to what you’re already doing on WordPress. If you don’t believe us, check out this video that walks you through the simple steps to creating your gallery.
• Customization—MaxGalleria comes with several gallery templates, as well as skins, which determine what those templates look like, allowing you to create a custom gallery.
• Built-in NextGEN importer—if you’re currently using NextGEN to manage your galleries, this option makes it almost too easy to migrate to MaxGalleria. With a few quick clicks of the mouse, you can import all of your NextGEN images into your new MaxGalleria galleries.

Still Not Convinced?

If you’re still aren’t convinced that MaxGalleria is an awesome plugin, don’t take our word for it. Check out all the great features here.  They offer three different purchasing plans to fit the needs of your WordPress site, all of which we think are well worth the money. And be sure to check out this video, which shows you just how easy it is to use the MaxGalleria plugin.

At past events, web creators from every major genre and from over 40 different countries have attended. With presentations on topics such as content creation, distribution, monetization, and opportunities to network with other professionals in your area, this is a great opportunity for WordPress bloggers and content creators to expand their knowledge and improve their online businesses.

Presentations

NMX 2013 is set to offer a number of presentations by industry leaders. Topics covered will range from basic social networking to building your site traffic to using comedy to get people hooked. Here are just a few of the noteworthy sessions at this year’s conference:

• Blog Wars: The Changing Legal Landscape for Bloggers
• 23 Ways to be more Re-Pinnable—Engaging Content & the Power of Pinterest
• Proven Methods to Use Free in Your Business to Get More Traffic, More Subscribers and More Customers
• The Anatomy of a 100,000 Visitor Post: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Viral Posts That Get Massive Traffic and Shares
• Media Money: 5 Action Plans for Profiting from Your Blog, Podcast or WebTV Show
• The Art of Becoming a Leader in Your Niche
• Defining and Maximizing Conversions Through Better Usability
• The Future of SEO—Social Meets Content

For a full list of the NMX 2013 presentations, click here.

Networking

NMX attendees are not just there to learn, but to connect with other qualified professionals in their area of expertise. At the New Media Expo, attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate with industry peers, network, and get a first hand look at new technology launches and trends. It’s the place to find resources such as web hosts, bloggers, designers, and consultants. This could be your opportunity to grow your business by adding a new resource, or join a new team that can take your ideas to the next level.

Sign up Now for a Special Discount

Last year’s expo sold out, so make sure you sign up now. Early bird prices end 10/26/12, so if you want to get in at the best price, now is the time. In addition to the lower price, NMX has two coupon offers that are only available for a VERY short time.

To receive $100 off your entry fee, visit the NMX 2013 site right here by 10/21/12 and enter code AN100D at checkout.

If you miss the 10/21/12 deadline, you can still save $50 on your entry fee with code AN50D, which expires 10/28/12.

Bottlenose is the answer. It’s a way to find and share specific content from social networks and groups, and it could transform the way product and business owners market online.

So What is Bottlenose and How Does it Work?

Here’s the quick and dirty on what it does—enter a keyword or phrase, and Bottlenose will display in real time tweets and posts related to that topic and place them in order of importance.  You can search just your followers, or everyone in the social media universe, and find out just what people are saying about the topic. You can then join in on the conversation, or share the information with others. It’s a way to identify thousands of potential clients that you would never have been able to identify on your own.

In the example below, I searched for “SEO Guides” and got the following results.

You can also get the same information in newspaper format to get a more comprehensive description of what’s being said.

What makes this so revolutionary is that you can then join in on any conversation and either directly or discreetly promote your business.  Respond to a comment by mentioning your product, or respond as your business and don’t reference your product at all. Either way, you are exposing your business to thousands of new eyes.

Additional Features that Make Bottlenose a Great Marketing Tool

Buffer Integration

Beyond the search function, Bottlenose has a number of features that will change the way you market and share information online. The first is that you can add your Buffer to your Bottlenose account and quickly and easily fill up your Buffer with trending, relevant information. The easiest way to do this is to use the “Top Links Now” tab. This feature takes your Twitter stream and orders it by most popular.

You can then easily add the best tweets to your Buffer at the touch of a button. And if you want to add original posts, you can enter a message of any length and Bottlenose will intelligently shorten them to meet Twitter limitations and then provide a link to the full message.

Sonar

The Sonar feature is the one that can really expand the reach of your social media marketing. It gives you a visual representation of live trending topics, whose talking about them, how they’re doing it, and how they relate. It expands a basic topic like “SEO Guide” and shows you how it connects to topics like “e-commerce,” “link building,” and “WordPress,” thereby expanding your advertising targets. You can also use it to get the basics of a fast moving conversation, so you don’t have to scroll through and read tons of messages to understand the flow of the conversation.

Rules

The Rules feature lets you set rules for who you want to follow and how. Only interested in knowing when specific followers are talking about your product? Set a rule. Want to filter your search results to avoid showing complaints or rumors? There’s a rule for that. Only interested in viewing certain types of messages, like news or statuses? There’s a rule for that too. Bottlenose allows for endless optimization when it comes to how and what shows up in your stream so that you save time when searching for topics and people.

Analyze Usernames

One of the most powerful features of Bottlenose is that it will analyze Twitter usernames in real time. By clicking on a name, you will see what the user’s interests are, their favorite topics, people they mention, and their expertise. This is a great way to focus your marketing efforts on specific types of customers and expand your efforts to people they know who share the same interests.

Convinced yet?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Bottlenose can really transform the way that you share information about your business or product online. What I like about it is that your advertising doesn’t have to be bold and in your face—simply respond to a relevant post using your business or product’s username, and you may stir up interest in your product from people who have never heard of it.

You can also engage users in a discussion about your business topic, and then casually slip in your product’s name. Or simply share what other people are saying about your product through your Buffer. There are a number of ways that blog commenting campaigns can be done, and Bottlenose takes the work out of finding relevant groups to market to.

Give it a try—it’s completely free. And if you don’t find that it works for your business, I’m sure you’ll still find that it’s a lot of fun!

How to Create a Membership Site with WordPress

In Membership Maximizer, Daniel details a couple of proven paid plugins and themes that can take your member site to a truly professional level, but buying into these plugins and themes isn’t necessary if you want to create a member site using WordPress and some freely available tools.

To illustrate this fact, Daniel has put together a nice infographic showing the basic steps to creating a WordPress-powered membership site…for zero cost. Check it out below and visit Membership Maximizer to learn more of how his training works.

Infographic Courtesy of Membership Maximizer

As you can see from the Infographic, the steps to creating a free WordPress-powered member site are pretty basic. It just takes the knowledge of how exactly to implement these technques to get you on your way to creating a passive membership-based income. Whatever your primary business is, there is always an option to offer more in-depth knowledge and services to your clients and customers behind an affordable monthly or yearly membership.

Learn More About Membership Maximizer Now.

How FooBox Makes Your Website Better

Responsive Image Resizing

FooBox adds beautiful and responsive image Lightbox capability to your WordPress-powered website. It allows all (or select) images on your site to respond to your visitor’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.

Images automatically resize correctly on all mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and traditional desktop monitors allowing your users to easily navigate through your images.

Have a look at the two FooBox demos:

Responsive Device Demo

Image Gallery Demo

Responsive Social Sharing Built-in

FooBox adds convenient social sharing icons to your images allowing them to be easily shared by your users across the social network landscape. These social icons are also responsive and resize accordingly to different device screen sizes and orientations. It’s a proven fact that the social sharing of images increases not only your user engagement, but also the traffic to your site as images are viewed by the followers of those who have shared your image.

With the popularity of sites like Pinterest and the Facebook acquisition of the Instagram image sharing behemoth, having responsive social sharing capability inside your images is something you need in your image marketing arsenal.

See all of the FooBox features here.

Look Who’s Using and Talking About FooBox

Just a couple hours after it’s release, the folks behind the NextGen Gallery plugin already had FooBox listed on their NextGen Gallery Extensions list, and they even wrote up a nice article about FooBox’s features.

We also have some testimonials on our main FooBox site submitted by well-respected members of the WordPress and Internet business community.

Make Money with FooBox

In conjunction with our release of FooBox, we’ve also created an affiliate program that pays out a whopping 33%. If you like making cash by promoting quality WordPress plugins (and customer service and support), then have a look at our affiliate program details and sign up.

The Future of FooBox (and our team)

The future of FooBox is an exciting one. We have a long list of features we plan to build in. Even more exciting is what we haven’t shown you yet. During the process of creating FooBox, we’ve been secretly building an advanced plugin for managing the various processes involved in creating and launching a premium plugin product. That’s really all I can say for now.

You should subscribe to this site to stay in the loop when we’re ready to release some more info on our next project:)