Cassidy Lackey

Challenges with WooCommerce v2.0

Cassidy Lackey — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:59:56 +0000

Since Woocommerce seems to be a popular topic on my blog, I thought I’d follow up with an update to my original Woocommerce Post and discuss some of woocommerce v2.0 challenges I’ve faced recently.

I hadn’t been following the progress of the big wocommerce 2.0 release but late Monday night I noticed that my Scandle Candle wordpress dashboard was notifying of an upgrade for woocommerce plugin so I upgraded and went to bed without much thought. I woke early Tuesday and checked the site only to find v2.0 had caused a number of issues. All my prices on the products were marked as “free”, the product detail page layout was hosed and worst of all, I could no longer access the “products” page in the dashboard.

With some quick preliminary searches I found Woo had a list of suggestions to prepare your site for wocommerce v2.0 as well as testing it in a separate environment. I knew at that point I was screwed since it was obviously a big update with major database changes. I knew even if there were problems with woocommerce v2.0 it would be days before a new version was released so I decided the best solution was to roll back to an earlier version of the site then try and convert to woocommerce v2.0 with a proper testing environment.

Unfortunately, my BackWPup quit working recently when I upgraded that plugin to 3.0 so my most recent backup of the site was a couple weeks old. I was able to export the most recent orders and posts from the bad woocommerce 2.0 install. I moved the backup files from my S3 backups to the AWS server and unzipped them into the wordpress directory. I deleted the database and uploaded the most recent database file then launched it and imported the most recent recent orders and posts using the wordpress importer. It wasn’t actually this easy as it took me a few hours to work though all the details.

once complete I ensured all my themes and plugins were updated, other than the new Woocommerce v2.0 update. Come to find out, my woo theme updater wasn’t working as I was on an old version of my shelflife theme. I took a snapshot of the AWS image and launched a new instance of the server to test the wocomemrce 2.0 upgrade. Still no luck as the woocommerce v2.0 version was missing a good deal of the main page of the site and the products page in the dashboard still came up as a file not found. I decided to stick with my old version of woocommerce until they get the bugs worked out. I’ll try the upgrade again (in a test environment) in a few months.

During all these changes I noticed the site was getting very slow so I upgraded from a micro to a small EC2 instance. Didn’t seem to help much so I reinstalled the W3 Total Cache plugin and allowed it to self-configure. Slightly faster but not great so installed WP Optimize and had it remove thousands of post revisions. A bit better but not great. Finally, I removed Simple 301 Redirects and that seemed to do the trick as it was much faster now. I was using the 301 plugin redirect when we moved from the old site structure to the new site about a year ago so we shouldn’t need it any longer. The site responded so much better that I moved the image back to an EC2 micro instance.

Unfortunately, BackWPup still isn’t working on the site as the BackWPup menu items simply never show up in the dashboard. So I moved to UpDraftPlus for the time being. Not quite as customizable but I’ll try BackWPup again in the future to see if they get it working.

Note to self, don’t perform major (database-altering) plugin upgrades without testing it in a separate environment first. Fortunately AWS makes this fairly easy with minimal user impact if you know how to create an AMI, launch it and move elastic IP around. Also, make sure you have recent backups (database AND files) whenever you upgrade any plugins.

In the process I did upgrade the server that hosts this CassidyLackey.com site (with about a half-dozen other WP sites) from an EC2 micro to a small instance. Apparently the BackWPup backups were failing on this server because there wasn’t enough memory to run the full backups on the micro instance. The traffic on these sites had grown enough to justify the bigger server anyway.

Update at 1pm on 3/6/13 – The woocommerce order import process using the standard wordpress import/export function wasn’t such a great idea. It apparently doesn’t include the order line items (products) with the order XML so you basically just get a skeleton order. Fortunately it was just 4 orders and I created a dump of the original mysql database before rebuilding it. So, I edited the SQL file from the original database and located the line item IDs and associated product IDs then added them manually.

My 15 Favorite Entrepreneurial Books

Cassidy Lackey — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 21:44:11 +0000

My friends and family know I read business and Entrepreneurial books almost exclusively. There are a few who ask for recommendations so I created a list of my 15 favorite entrepreneurial books. These are listed in no particular order.

Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success. Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Sound crazy? It’s all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that’s doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

Rework
Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you’ll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don’t need outside investors, and why you’re better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don’t need to be a workaholic. You don’t need to staff up. You don’t need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don’t even need an office. Those are all just excuses. What you really need to do is stop talking and start working.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated)
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future – those who’ve found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful. Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do. You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you’re sure it’s successful.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature. Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they?re enabling countless new tribes to be born?groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t
Can a good company become a great one and, if so, how? After a five-year research project, Collins concludes that good to great can and does happen. In this book, he uncovers the underlying variables that enable any type of organization to make the leap from good to great while other organizations remain only good. Rigorously supported by evidence, his findings are surprising – at times even shocking – to the modern mind. “Good to Great” achieves a rare distinction: a management book full of vital ideas that reads as well as a fast-paced novel.

The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business
Innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen says outstanding companies can do everything right and still lose their market leadership—or worse, disappear altogether. Whether in electronics or retailing, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know when to abandon traditional business practices. Using the lessons of successes and failures from leading companies, The Innovator’s Dilemma presents a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Do you have a hobby you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take those passions and make a living doing what you love. In CRUSH IT! Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. By the end of this book, any reader will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, CRUSH IT! is the ultimate driver′s manual for modern business.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.)
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? How much do parents really matter? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports—and reaches conclusions that turn conventional wisdom on its head. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, they show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
The old saying is wrong—winners do quit, and quitters do win. Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point—really hard, and not much fun at all. And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you’re in a Dip—a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Steve Jobs
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging
No one likes cold calls at dinnertime, junk mail overflowing your mailbox, and advertisements that interrupt your favorite shows. If this is “marketing,” then the world would probably prefer whatever is the opposite of that. If you’re ready to stop marketing and start engaging, then welcome to UnMarketing. The landscape of business-customer relationships is changing, and UnMarketing gives you innovative ways out of the old “Push and Pray” rut. Instead, draw the right customers to you through listening and engagement, enabling you to build trust and position yourself as their logical choice when they need you.

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it’s more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques. Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.

In case you’ve been counting, this is only 14. It was too challenging to choose that final book so I’ll leave it up to you. What did I miss?



A New Adventure
Cassidy Lackey — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:27:51 +0000
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Theologian, Howard Thurman
It was July, 1997 and I just released my first mobile app, SimpleDB for the PalmPilot. The entire personal digital assistant (pda) market was just several hundred thousand PalmPilots and a dozen mobile apps. This was long before smartphones, Google, the iMac and the dot-com bubble.
The PDA market continued to heat up through 1998 and I lunched Mobile Account Manager, the first password security app for the Palm OS.  I also replaced SimpleDB with a new upgraded version, MobileDB. By the end of 1999, I had released a suite of apps including the official Tetris for the PalmPilot under my company, Mobile Generation Software.
Handmark, led by seasoned retail software veterans Augie Grasis and Doug Edwards, came calling during the fall of 2000. I was excited to join forces and tackle the retail PDA software market. Over the next 3 years we became the leader in PDA software at retail, developing and publishing great titles including the original Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, Yahtzee as well as The Bible, Oxford dictionary and Rand McNally maps.
In early 2003 we got a sneak peek of the Treo 600 smartphone and realized this device, coupled with the right software and services, could change mobile forever. We began development of Pocket Express, the first smartphone app to deliver real-time news, weather, sports, movie show times, business listings and maps. We launched Express in early 2004 and I believe it changed the trajectory for the mobile software and services industry.
My 15 years in mobile software and 12 at Handmark have been an incredible journey and I appreciate the opportunity I’ve had to work with great people and release outstanding products.   That said, I realize that I was most alive during the very early years when we were shaping a new industry.
Today is my last day at Handmark as I set out for a new adventure.  I’m excited to tap into my entrepreneurial spirit and create businesses that shape new industries.  Initially I plan to focus on hyperlocal, water conservation and the cloud.
Follow me @cassidylackey if you’d like to join me on this adventure.



My Hyperlocal Journey
Cassidy Lackey — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:10:56 +0000
In early 2008 I was searching the web for information on lakes around the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  What information I found was sparse and outdated.  I knew other users were having the same issue so I partnered with a friend to develop LakeHub.com, a network of sites focused on information including real estate, rentals, marinas, fishing guide and camping details for lakes around the DFW area.  I didn’t realize it at the time but this was the beginning of a fairly significant network of over a dozen hyperlocal sites and facebook communities.
CedarCreekLake.com
The Launch
I acquired the CedarCreekLake.com domain from a local guy using it to promote his vacation rental and we launched the first site in December of 2008. Initially the site included lake information, marinas, campgrounds, fishing guides, real estate and vacation rental listings.  I didn’t plan on monetizing the site until I was able to generate significant value for local business owners so all the listings were free.  Even so, many real estate agents and vacation rental owners were skeptical so it took some begging to post their listings.    The site launched on the 3rd page of google search results for “cedar creek lake” but quickly moved up the ranks. By the end the first full year in 2009, CedarCreekLake.com had generated 566,000 page views from 56,000 visits.
When I realized site was generating quality leads for vacation rental owners and real estate agents I knew it was a viable business.  We moved forward to acquire the domains and launched sites for Lake Bridgeport, Lake Bob Sandlin, Lake Sam Rayburn and Possum Kingdom Lake.  We also created facebook pages for each of the lakes and integrated them to the sites.
The Monetization Test
By 2010, CedarCreekLake.com was the top search result for most keywords at Cedar Creek Lake and generating a ton of quality leads for vacation rentals and real estate listings.  We decided to test the water on monetization so we built a fully-automated subscription ecommerce engine that accrues listing charges each day and processes the transactions at the end of the month.  The goal was to fully automate the billing and give users the ability to self-service their account to minimize our overhead.
We followed the freemium model and allowed users to upgrade their standard (free) real estate or vacation rental listing to a premium listing for $25/mo which generated much higher visibility for the listing.  Each week we sent an automated email with the views for each listing as well as the “top 10″ listings.  Ultimately all the top 10 listings were premium listings but a small percentage of listings were ultimately upgraded.
In 2010 we launched a handful of new sites including Lake Fork, Lake Granbury, Lake Palestine and Lake Texoma, our most expensive domain purchase at a low five-figure price tag.  We also started experimenting with Facebook ads and created some relatively large facebook communities of 20,000+ fans.  I wasn’t sure how we’d monetize the facebook fans but I knew these communities would be useful at some point.
For 2010, our traffic for CedarCreekLake.com ended with 88,000 visits, 56,000 visitors and 1,022,000 page views, up 100% from 2009.
Monetization Phase 2
I wasn’t satisfied with the results of our initial monetization test so the spring of 2011 brought a new strategy as we started charging for standard listings at CedarCreekLake.com.  Users could post one real estate listing for free but but we’d require a $25/mo professional real estate subscription for unlimited real estate listings. We also began charging $25/mo for each standard vacation rental listing and $50/mo for premium listings.
As you’d expect there was plenty of grumbling and complaining when switching from free to paid.  However we’d already proven the value by delivering valuable leads as a free service.  Our positioning that we were focusing on the agents and vacation owners who are most interested on growing their business.  Eventually most everyone bought into the new model.
In early 2011 we  started offering banner advertisements for businesses looking for higher visibility.  At CedarCreekLake.com, these were $100/mo and rotated a maximum of 5 ads.  We also started selling business listings for fishing guide listings at LakeTexoma.com at $25/mo per listing.  We were ranking highly for that keyword and noticed there were over 100 fishing guides on the lake so the 10-15 we found were eager to find new marketing channels.
Expansion to News, Weather and Lake Levels
In November of 2011 we launched pages for local weather and current lake levels for all lakes.  With the 2011 Texas drought and low lake levels this quickly became a very popular feature.  We also launched a community news and events section at CedarCreekLake.com where local writers can post stories and events related to the area.  A retired local news editor, several local business owners and fishing guides we were publishing 3-5 stories per week.  Each of these were posted on the Cedar Creek Lake facebook page with 10,000+ fans which generated a great deal of traffic to the site.  Our trial of citizen journalism had changed the face of news in the CCL area as were distributing information more quickly and efficiently than the local news sources.
Traffic for CedarCreekLake.com ended 2011 with 101,000 visits, 68,000 visitors and 851,000 page views.  LakeTexoma, now our most highly-trafficked site was listing very well for nearly every Lake Texoma keyword and generated 1,000,000 page views from 158,000 visits and 121,000 unique visitors – up over 500% from the year before.
Where to Next?
For 2012, we started charging for real estate listings and vacation rentals on a handful of the lake sites.  We launched a lower-cost “badge” advertising option for small businesses at CedarCreeLake.com and LakeTexoma.com.   We also acquired the domain and launched GrandLake.com to officially expand into Oklahoma.
Possum Kingdom Lake
In September of 2012 I left my full-time job to focus on growing LakeHub as well as a few other ventures.  I’ll be spending more time at the lakes to get involved in the communities and launching a number of cool new features.  I’ll also have the opportunity to work from locations with views like this one from Possum Kingdom Lake.
If you are interested in hyperlocal sites then you may want to follow me on twitter as I’ll be discussing it frequently.



How to Earn Extra Money with WordPress
Cassidy Lackey — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:19:10 +0000
I believe everyone should work towards creating passive income.  Generating just a few hundred extra dollars per month can go a long way when you lose your job or get in a tight spot.  Fortunately tools such as WordPress provide excellent opportunities to earn some extra money.
To create long-term passive income you’ll need to provide ongoing value with your knowledge and expertise vs hourly labor.   I believe there is great opportunity offering a suite of website and marketing services to small businesses to help them drive more business on the web. You’ll charge a fairly high monthly fee ($25-$50) but I’ll show how you can easily demonstrate the return on investment.  As far as the work required, many months you’ll do nothing while others might require 30 minutes or an hour.
To start, learn the basics of each discipline below.  You may feel like a neophyte compared to those who teach it online but you’ll be an expert in the eyes of a small business owner.   Keep in mind you are selling yourself and your knowledge more than just hourly work.
Design and Development – I’m neither a designer nor developer but I taught myself to build great WordPress sites such as CrossfitDFW, Scandle Candle and this blog.  There is a bit of a learning curve but once you’re proficient you’ll build simple sites in just a few hours.  I suggest searching for a local WordPress class to jumpstart your WordPress education.
Hosting, Backups and Security Updates – You’ll need to choose a WordPress hosting provider and become proficient in the WordPress setup.  Beyond that, its fairly simply to keep the WordPress site updated and backed up but adds significant value to the “package” you’re offering small businesses.
Search Engine Optimization – While the SEO guideline are constantly changing, the basics of SEO are fairly constant.  Understand the basics and you’ll know more than 90% of business owners.  Fortunately, WordPress is fairly easy to optimize for search engines but you’ll need to be able to communicate SEO basics to the business owner.
Web Tracking and Analytics – Very few small businesses track their usage of their site so they are basically flying blind.   While Google analytics can be fairly complex, just the basics are all you’ll need.  Provide a quarterly report to your small businesses to demonstrate the their analytics in a plain-english format and they’ll think you are a genius.
Search Engine Marketing – Learn the basics of search engine marketing through Google Adwords.  Understand the Google keywords tool so you can communicate the keywords the site should target and the cost to generate a click to their site via Adwords.    Offer to manage their adwords campaign as part of their package.   This really only takes a few minutes per month for a small campaign.  Also, help the business get listing in Google local and drive users to rate and comment on the listing.
Social Network Integration – Understand how to integrate twitter and facebook into the site to improve the social network interaction.  Typically this is simply requires the installation of WordPress plugin but generate a ton of value for the business owner.
Social Marketing – To learn social marketing, create a business facebook page and run ads to generate likes in order to learn a bit around Social Marketing.    I’ve done this through my TexasProud facebook page where I generated over 2500 fans in about a week.
Content Management – Help the business owner how fresh site content generates higher search results and more traffic.  Give them a login to their WordPress site and show them how they can update the content and add new blog posts.
Drive Innovation – Keep up with the latest WordPress plugins and drive innovation by suggesting a new plugin that will help solve a problem or drive more usage.  For instance, maybe the business has grown to multiple locations so they should integrate a Google maps plugin.
You’ll need to demonstrate ongoing value to justify the higher monthly rates.  I suggest sending quarterly updates to the business owner with a detailed list of the items you’ve completed each quarter including plugin updates, backups, content updates, adword management, etc…  Also include a summary of their site traffic trends, top keywords, demographics, suggestions for new content, etc..
I know, you are thinking, “how do I locate these businesses owners and convince them to justify $50/mo when they are currently paying $50/yr for hosting?”  First, teach them about the value you’ll be creating with the items above and how it will positively impact their business.   Now, here is the kicker – offer the design and development of the site for FREE.  Most developers will charge $500, $1000 or $2,000 for a simple site but you can build it in 5-10 hours with WordPress so do it for free and generate $50/mo ($600/yr) for all these great services.
Here are some great ideas to locate potential clients.
-       Start with gorilla marketing by posting fliers or business cards in coffee shops with a catchy tag line,  “I’ll build your new business site for free.”
-       Join the chamber of commerce and other networking groups.  Show up and let them know you are a web developer and internet marketing guru.
-       Find local businesses with terrible sites and build a quick prototype of a new site then send it to them.  Tell them you’ll complete it and offer all these additional services to grow their online businesses for only $25/mo (or whatever).
-       Once you have a few sites completed, submit your profile to craigslist, elance, guru.com, etc..  No need to focus solely on local businesses if you’ve tapped out all your local options.



Woocommerce Example Site
Cassidy Lackey — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:41:28 +0000
I’m a big fan of tools such as WordPress that enable entrepreneurs. I was excited to learn about Woocommerce, an updated version of the popular WordPress ecommerce plugin by Jigoshop. It just so happened that a few friends needed a new site for their massage candle business so I offered to rebuild the site using WordPress, Woocommerce and a slew of plugins. My goal was to get this new site live within 30 days working an “hour-or-so” per day.
The Basics
I’m not a developer, designer nor a system admin but I know enough of each to get me in trouble. In order to stretch myself further I decided to get this out on the amazon cloud. You can read about my challenges with the Bitnami WordPress AMI. While this added a bit of complexity to the solution, I learned a great deal about the cloud, WordPress AMIs, etc..
I decided to leverage a WordPress multisite install that was already using for several other sites. Looking back, I should have probably installed a separate WordPress instance for this site, just to keep it clean and minimize the complexity. Also not all plugins support multi-site WP installs so that created an additional challenge.
After installing and configuring a few themes I ultimately landed on the Shelflife Woocommerce theme with a blue background.
Lessons Learned
- Take some time to understand the taxonomy of woocommerce – products, categories, attributes, variations, etc… This can become very complex if you have products with many options. One product originally planned to sell had 3 options with 14 variations each – over 2700 separate skus. Ultimately I decided to simplify that product.
- Do some research upfront to locate plugins for all the features you need. It can be a bit maddening to get 95% into the product and realize there is no plugin to handle a key feature. Then you’ll need to find a developer to create it.
- Make sure the site speed is good before you start adding all your products, posts, etc.. I assumed that I could go back and optimize stuff later only to find out its much more difficult at the end of the project. Since the site is too slow for my taste, I’ll be basically rebuilding it on a new wordpress ami.
- Keep all your featured images the same aspect ratio. This ensures that the images for product lists all line up appropriately.
WordPress Plugins Utilized
Store Locator Plus – I needed to support a retail locator for several hundred outlets and Store Locator Plus fit the bill. I ultimately upgraded to the pro pack for $30 in save myself time by uploading hundreds of stores from a CSV file.
Google XML Sitemaps with MultiSite support – Submitting every page to the Google search engine is important so I used this Google XML sitemap generator and uploaded it into google webmaster.
Peter’s Login Redirect – One shortcoming of WordPress and Woocommerce themes are the logout and password resend features that send you back to the main wordpress login and password resend pages. This simple plugin redirects the user to a specific page on logout so I just redirect them back to the main page of the site. I still need to find a solution for the password resend.
W3 Total Cache – The new site was dog slow – and it still is. I used the popular W3 Total Cache plugin to help a bit. Unfortunately, the woocommerce engine isn’t too “cache friendly” so it didn’t help much. Ultimately I have another solution to speed things up.
BC Forms – One goal for the new site was to automate some of the back-end processes. While I’m not a big fan of Big Contacts, the team was already using it so I needed the contact forms to integrate directly into BC. This plugin has some fairly significant issues but I was able to make it work eventually.
Woocommerce – Obviously I needed to utilize an commerce plugin to create a store based on WordPress. WP-Commerce and Jigoshop are two other options. I’ve tried neither and both have mixed reviews.
Woocommerce Paypal Pro Gateway – I prefer to use paypal for all my business ventures and this was no exception. The Woocomemrce Paypal Pro gateway served all my needs and the integration was fairly simple.
WooCommerce Print Invoice/Packing list – Our fulfillment partner preferred print an invoice directly form our admin and send it with the order. I found this nifty plugin that handled the task.
WooCommerce Wholesale Pricing – As well direct-to-consumer sales, the site is also utilized by retailers who purchase products at wholesale prices. This plugin enabled me to create wholesale pricing for each product and product variation.
WooCommerce Google Product Feed – As of today I haven’t been able to get this to work but supposedly it’ll allow me to create an XML feed of the products for the Google marketplace.
Configure SMTP – Amazon cloud servers typically block all email from sending directly off the server. Therefore, I needed an SMTP plugin to send WordPress email through another server. Initially I set up Amazon Simple Email Send (SES) with this plugin but oddly enough the Woocommerce emails wouldn’t go through it. I attempted to solve via Woo and the Configure SMTP developer but they both pointed me to Amazon as the issue. Ultimately I just used GoDaddy as the SMTP relay.
Contact Form 7 – One of the best “contact us” forms but it might have been a bit overkill since I used BC Forms for my more complex integration with Big Contacts.
Simple 301 Redirects – Moving from an older established, non-wordpress site with hundreds of links requires redirects to ensure that the old pages redirect to the new page on the new site. Ultimately these should probably reside in the htaccess (or nginx equivalent) but this was a quick and dirty solution.
Simplr User Registration Form Plus – To support the wholesale purchase accounts I needed a simple solution to create and activate these accounts. I uncovered an issue with the standard wordpress user account creation, email send and activation process. Clicking the link in the activation email just displayed a blank screen. This may have been an issue with the theme but I located this simple plugin that allowed users to create their own standard account. Then just change the role of the account on the back-end.
WP Super FAQ – I needed a good FAQ plugin and this did the trick!
 
Update on 9/13/12
- I finally got the abodycandle.com site moved to a new Amazon Machine Instance (AMI) optimized for WordPress using nginx.  This is our home-grown AMI that we’ll be making available through RipCloud after further testing.  The site is now about 4x faster on a micro instance than it was on the bitnami small instance.  Also saved me about $50/mo.
Check out the latest update to my Woocommerce journey with my WooCommerce v2.0 post.
 



How to Create an Effective Facebook Community
Cassidy Lackey — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:08:23 +0000
It seems that most Facebook advertisers treat Facebook the same as any other advertising  medium.  They create a page for their product or business then run a generic facebook ad hoping users will “like” their page.  Sounds easy enough but it doesn’t work.
Facebook users understand that “likes” are immediately visibile to all their friends so they won’t “like” a product that they don’t “love”.  They also realize each “like” adds noise to their news feed so they won’t typically “like” products that don’t add value to their feed.    
Through my testing, I’ve found it more effective to create a facebook page around a cause or community than a product.  I created a facebook page around a subject with a very passionate audience – Texas pride.   I added a handful of interesting Texas photos and stories then launched a Facebook ad targeting anyone with a Texas interest.  The ad theme was “Proud of Texas?  Like us to show your pride.”  Within one week I had 2500 fans at a cost of $200 or roughly $.08 per user.
So, were these passionate fans?  Some of my posts had over 30% of the users (who saw it) interact with it via a like, share or comment.   So, I’d say so.



Entrepreneur Must Read – Top 10 Rework Highlights
Cassidy Lackey — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:07:37 +0000
Occasionally I like to refresh my memory on a few favorite books.   I’ve found it useful to check the top Amazon Kindle highlights as a quick review.  Here are the top to 10 highlights for Rework, one of my favorite business books for 2010.
“The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you”
“Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.”
“What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”
“Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small part of a business that it’s almost negligible. The real question is how well you execute.”
“If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)”
“When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.”
“A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.”
“You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.”
“Whenever you can, swap “Let’s think about it” for “Let’s decide on it.” Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.”
“The core of your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should invest in.”
If you haven’t read the entire book, I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of Rework.



Purchase Decisions in the Future
Cassidy Lackey — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:19:17 +0000
In the next few years we’ll see a huge shift in how we buy online.  With the recent social graph API announcement Facebook is now compiling the world’s largest social recommendation engine.  Someday you may only purchase or download goods that your friends have “liked.”
Amazon is now displaying the recently heavily highlighted books – the titles Kindle users are highlighting most frequently.   It is just a matter of time before this information utilized to drive additional sales.  Someday Amazon could display the percentage of users who finished the book.  How would it impact your purchase decision if only 10% of the purchases completed the book?
What if iTunes sorted iPhone applications based on usage instead of downloads or purchases?    What if Google displayed the most popular and  ”stickiest” sites at the top of the search rankings?  Oh wait, they already do that and it made them the most popular search engine in the world.
What does this mean to you?  Well, you better be creating products and digital content that your customers love and want to tell their friends about.  Clever marketing and big budgets are slowly taking a back seat to remarkable products and content.



Reach the Top Search Engine Listing in One Year
Cassidy Lackey — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:29:01 +0000
For those of you with search engine optimization (SEO) experience, move on. This post is dedicated to the “average” site owner with very little exposure to the world of search engine marketing.
In the summer of 2008 I decided to create a community site for Cedar Creek Lake with a goal to reach the #1 organic search result for “Cedar Creek Lake.”     By late 2009, roughly 12 months after the launch, I had become the top organic listing searching for Cedar Creek Lake, Cedar Creek Lake Real Estate and Cedar Creek Lake Rentals.  While there are hundreds of variables to search engine rankings, below are the 5 most important factors that pushed CedarCreekLake.com from nowhere to the top of the listings.
Choose Your Keywords Wisely – Optimize your site around the wrong keywords (search terms) and it’s like taking a wrong turn in a foot race. I suggest using a tool such as the Google Keywords Tool to determine the most popular keywords for your content.  Choose 2-5 keywords and optimize individual pages for each.  Once you see results then you can add more target keywords and pages.
Select a Domain that Utilizes your Target Keywords – Search engines give higher rankings to domains with the keywords embedded.  Fortunately, I was able to secure CedarCreekLake.com which was perfect since the top search keyword for this lake is “Cedar Creek Lake.”  At the time, CedarCreekLake.com was listed on the 2nd page of “cedar creek lake” search results but unranked for any other cedar creek lake keywords.
Optimize URLs and Page Names – Whenever possible, utilize  your target keywords in your page name and URLs (or links) to your site.  For example, the page I optimized for “Cedar Creek Lake Real Estate” utilizes the keywords “Cedar Creek Lake Real Estate” in the page title and the URL is www.cedarcreeklake.com/real-estate.
Create Great Content – Search engines prefer sites with many pages of quality content.  Fortunately, CedarCreekLake.com is mostly user-contributed content so I’ve been able to submit over 800 pages in the search engines within a year.  It is also important that search engines can “see” all your pages through sitemaps and site navigation that the search engine can spider.   Check the number of pages that the search engines see in your site by searching “site:domainname.com” such as my example atsite:cedarcreeklake.com.
Get Links to Your Site – To build credibility with search engines you need credible sites need to link to you.   Work with other sites in your industry to cross link or submit content for other sites in return for links to your site.  I suggest using Yahoo Site Explorer to see which pages are linking to your site as well as other sites in your industry.
Again, this just scratches the surface of Search Engine Optimization as there are literally hundreds of variables that search engines use to rank sites. However, these simple steps will help push your site up the rankings and generate a great deal more traffic.  The first few weeks we launched CedarCreekLake.com in October of 2008, we generated an average of 3 visitors a day from organic listings.  This month we are generating 150 visitors a day from organic search listings.
Use the comments section below to let me know what is working for you or ask any questions related to your site.