A few plugin q's and q on developing themes (wordpress)

Hi,

I have been asked to set up a website for a newspaper where they can post up latest issues etc. From the outset I thought it sounded like a wordpress job rather than having to dig into the html each time a new issue is released. They also want twitter and facebook like pages created. I thought it would be good if when a new issue is posted onto the wordpress site, it automatically updates the facebook and twitter feeds. Is this possible with a plugin?

Also is there a recommended plugin for the “like us on facebook; follow us on twitter” type of buttons?

The last question is in relation to theme development. I have no problem designing in photoshop, and then coding it into an html webpage, but I have never taken the extra step and taken this html webpage, and converted it into a wordpress theme. Does anyone have any good video tutorials on this? I definitely learn better from video than reading articles.

Thanks

Hi Zany! Hopefully I can help you out a bit here…

It definitely sounds like they (and you) would benefit from creating a website using a CMS(Wordpress etc) back-end. It will make things a lot easier.

I had a look for some plugins and found these two which should help you get an idea of what you can do. It looks like a good resource for this question as well as your next one.

Facebook Simple Connect

Twitter Simple Connect

For learning theme development, I haven’t had a good look so don’t have any videos, but you can take a look at wptuts+ which has some fantatic resources. Good luck!

Thanks very much, will check those links tomorrow :slight_smile: im sure there are probably plugins that enable a “share on facebook” and “tweet this” features aswell? Just so i can consult them on as many different social media integration features as possible. This will be my first freelance job so im really hoping it comes through :slight_smile: would mean i would be able to advertise my name as a web developer with a pretty well established advertising publication :). Ive no idea how to charge though, since this is for a relation of a friend i dont want to charge too much and have the added benefit of advertising my services.

There are probably alot of paid themes that would be suitable for this job with little or minimal tweaking but theme development is something im definitely going to have to look in to in the future.

Something else just came to mind as i type this, such a thing as an automailer plugin that would email subscribers each time a new issue was posted? Im sure there is, seems to be no end to wp plugs

The Facebook & Twitter ‘Simple’ Connect plugins I linked to are called ‘Simple’ - but it seems they have many features, including sharing on facebook and tweeting options, it looks like those two plugins will be all you need for facebook and twitter social network integration.

This is a very hard thing to come by - how much to charge someone - personally, I like to think about what my time is worth, how complicated the work is, and how long it will take. I will then think about an hourly rate (for design/page slicing/html/css) + extra complicated work (which for you is WP theme development and how much you think learning this is worth to you) * how many hours I think it will take.

(Hourly Rate + Extra Work)*hours = fixed cost. Giving them a fixed cost at the beginning can help them determine if they can afford it, or if they can afford more. Of course, this being your first job, I would suggest having quite a low hourly rate as you haven’t got the experience behind you. Finding the right rate for you can take some time. If they ask for extra on the site after you have completed things, just adjust the cost.

There’s most definitely themes out there, but if you want to get into freelance work, you best build up your portfolio and take every opportunity you can to do that. This is one of those times. Plus, buying a theme is the easy way out. :stuck_out_tongue:

There really is no end to what wordpress plugins are available, here’s one example of a email subscriber plugin for you.

Best of luck to your first job and welcome to the world of web design freelancing!

Thanks so much! Seems those 3 plugins will do everything i need! So really the biggest learning curve is theme development here for me. Will get on the ball and start looking into that as soon as.

Im also wondering what benefits a CMS like Drupal would have over using Wordpress, using the scenario ive given. I know I will end up using wordpress for this one as I have experience using it, but obviously as a web guy it would be good to have experience in as many technologies as possible at some point.

Thanks again

That is a good question and probably one that I can’t answer myself, as I haven’t used Drupal enough to know it very well, perhaps someone who has used Drupal & Wordpress could chime in that would be great.

Having said that, focus on Wordpress for now, otherwise you will get too tied up in too many projects and too many things to learn, then get overwhelmed and it will make you sad! I know the feeling! You will end up being a user of many and master of none. Learn Drupal after Wordpress is my opinion. Wordpress is really easy to work with and gets the majority of the job done. But it is definitely learning more than one CMS - but there’s plenty of time for that!

That’s my opinion anyway, hopefully others can make their own suggestions.