How to create category showcases for your store traffic site

Creating a category showcase for your store traffic site can help to increase the number of reasonably well targeted potential buyers who visit your store.

An example of a category showcase

Below is an example category showcase built for the Atahualpa 3.2 WordPress theme.

The above category showcase does the following for a store traffic site:

It provides a general page for driving traffic related to roleplaying games

It has sections for information relevant to potential customers:

• Reasons to buy from you
• Links to news and resources published on site which are updated automatically as you create new content.
• A quick selection of subcategories for those interested in particular roleplaying items or systems
• A list of recently added roleplaying games which is generated automatically from the most recent product showcases published on site.
• A store widget to showcase a couple of specific products

Creating your own Category Showcase

To create a category showcase like the one above, you will need the following:

• A WordPress site
  • See my store traffic website page for details.
• The Recent Posts plugin for WordPress
• The Post Plugin Library for WordPress

Note:
See Setting up new plugins in WordPress for help with installation.

Step 1: Setting up the Recent Posts Plugin

The Recent Posts plugin needs to be configured to allow output in content.

Log into WordPress

Select "Settings" → "Recent Posts"

This will bring you to the recent posts setting screen.

Select "Placement" from the top menu

This will bring up the recent posts Placement Settings screen

Set "Output in content:" to "Yes"

This lets you place special tags in posts and pages to display recent posts.

Select "Save Placement Settings"

This will save your settings

Step 2: Add CSS entries to your site

The category above uses a few CSS settings to take care of placement.

You may want to add more for finer display control.

Add the below stylesheet information to your site

• Atahualpa version 3.2 Instructions:

Copy the contents of the box below

Click in the box

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Login to your wordpress site

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "HTML/CSS Inserts" from the theme options at the top

Paste the copied code into the end of the CSS Inserts box

Scroll down to the end of the CSS Inserts Box

Click at the end of the last line

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Select "Save Your Changes" from the bottom of the screen

• For most other themes, copy the contents into your style.css file.

.pws-cat-list tr td {
    vertical-align: top;
}
.pws-cat-show tr td {
    vertical-align: top;
}

Step 3: Update Atahualpa Theme Options

Disable the right sidebar on "Page" pages

To do so:

• Log into WordPress.
• Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options".
• Select "Sidebars" under the Atahualpa Theme Options header.
• In the "Right Sidebar: Display on" section, uncheck "Page pages"
• Save your changes

Step 4: Create your new Category Showcase Page

To create a category page like that shown at the top of this page, use the following code snippet for the body and edit it to suit your tastes.

 CATEGORY BLURB 
<table class="pws-cat-show">
<tr>
<td width="50%">
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<th>Why buy from us?</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

REASON-AND-INCENTIVE-INFO
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>News and Resources</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
  <!--RecentPosts limit=5&tag_str=*********************-->
 </td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td>
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<th>Our store categories</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="URL_HERE">LINK_NAME</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>RECENTLY_ADDED_CAT_NAME_HERE</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><!--RecentPosts limit=5&included_cats=**^**^**^**^**^**^**--></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<center>


WIDGET_HERE


</center>

Create a new Page in WordPress

Log into WordPress

Select "Pages"Add New" from the admin menu

This will bring up the new page dialogue.

Enter the name you want for your category showcase page

This should be the primary keyword for your category.

Copy the below text into the body of your new page

Click in the box below

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Click in the body of your new page

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Set the page order and parent if wanted

Fill in Description and Keywords for Platinum SEO Pack if installed

Select Save Draft

Edit the page contents for your site

Edit CATERGORY BLURB

This should provide descriptive information about your category.

Edit REASON-AND-INCENTIVE-INFO

This should offer information on why buying from you is a good thing

Edit tag_str=***************

The *********** should be changed to a list of tags seperated by commas.

Posts with the tags listed here will automatically show up in the News and Resources box on the page.

For example, tag_str=books,fiction,adventure

Enter links to related store categories

These should be links directly to categories in your store.

Replace URL_HERE with the URL to your store category

Visit your store category in a different browser window or tab

Click in the box at the top where you see http://….

Select "Edit" → "Select All" from the file menu

Select "Edit" → "Copy" from the file menu

Back in your wordpress editor, delete the URL_HERE you want to replace

Place your cursor between the quotes after href=

Select "Edit" → "Paste" from the file menu

Replace LINK_NAME with the name you want for the link

This should be your primary keyword for the linked category.

Repeat for each category link you want to display

Remove any extra list item lines

To add more links copy a line and edit it.

Edit RECENTLY_ADDED_CAT_NAME_HERE

Something like "Newly added whatevers"

Set categories to have recent posts displayed for

Delete the **^**^**^**^**^**^** after included_cats=

Enter the IDs post categories you want to display here

Finding post category IDs

In a new window, go to your wordpress admin panel

Select "Posts" → "Categories" from the menu

Click the category you are interested in

In your browsers URL line, find cat_ID=#

That number is the ID for the category you selected.

Multiple IDs can be specified by seperating them with commas

Edit WIDGET-HERE

If you don’t want a widget, just delete everything after the last </table> tag

If you do want a widget:

Delete the WIDGET-HERE text

Copy a widget into the area it was in

See Bonanzle Widget Instructions

Select Save Draft

Select Preview to view your showcase

Make sure that everything looks ok

Test the links out to ensure they work

When you are satisfied that everything looks good, publish your new page.

Creating a Template for Future Category Showcases

Now that you have your first category showcase created, you might want to go ahead and create a template for it.

Read how to create templates for faster wordpress posting for full instructions on how to make a template for your category pages.

Note: As of WordPress 2.8, template creation is more difficult than it was because you can no longer edit templates with the plugin I use…but it still works just fine.

Similar Posts:

• How to create category directories for your store traffic site
• Creating a Bonanzle widget and placing it on your web site
• Creating custom sideboxes for product showcases