Feel free to grab a copy of The Privateer Theme and check it out, or find out more about it at the Privateer Theme Page.

Note: 1.0 is outdated and has a few bugs within it, but is still available to any interested in using it. It also lacks the new features available in 1.2.

So what does The Privateer Bring to the table?

1. Complete separation of WordPress Post/Page objects and the WordPress HTML Templates
   • Each major template page ( single.php, page.php, home.php, etc. ) has its own optional kicker, title, byline, and content areas, which you can populate as you see fit.
   • Both major wordpress objects ( pages and posts ) can have their individual pieces turned on and/or off.
2. A robust admin panel
   • Setup and style the template page level items.
   • Setup search engine optimization for the template.
   • Setup and style post and page objects shown via the template.
   • Override the default display with drop in custom displays.
3. Site wide view blocking
   • Turn your site off at will, blocking potential visitors based upon their permissions and displaying a custom message or page to anyone without the necessary permissions.
   • Good for heavy maintenance or just running a private members only site.
4. Drop in Custom Displays
   • Custom displays are much like templates, but they are simple drop in codes that override the content section of a particular template type.
   • Each has its own built in admin menu and page/post custom displays can be chosen on a page by page or post by post basis…and have individual options available within the wordpress page/post editor.
   • Activate multiple custom displays on non page/post templates to have pages of particular types served via a randomly installed custom display or activate only one and have it used to show that template consistently.
5. Configurable navigation bars of various types
   • Multi page navigation bars ( numeric or text )
   • Next / Previous post navigation bars
   • Ancestor navigation bars
   • Child page navigation bars

See the general look of The Privateer

• This site is running the privateer theme.
• The home page is using the Store Home 2 Column Custom display.
• The Store Home 2 Column Custom display is using the Product Showcase Single Post Custom Display
• The 404 page is using a custom 404 Not Found display. You can see an example here.
• The Privateer Theme page is using the Category Showcase Custom Display.

All of these will be available shortly.

Get How to Edit WordPress by adding a custom admin panel today!

Finding accurate tutorials with specific examples showing how to edit WordPress can waste a lot of time without turning up any good results.

It took me a few days of pouring over various existing themes and hunting around the internet to before I finally figured out how to customize wordpress for my own purposes.

If you would like a straight forward example of creating options for your own WordPress theme and building an admin panel so that you ( or others ) can easily change those options, then I have put together a short, concise manual that may be exactly what you are looking for.

Within this short 23 page manual you will find everything you need to:

• Create an admin panel for your WordPress theme
• Handle processing and display of your WordPress theme
• Use CSS and JavaScript within your admin panel
• Display status codes to users after processing requests
• Write a php class to handle all of your admin panels functions
• Read and write theme options to the builtin WordPress database
• Add functionality beyond updating options to your admin panel

With that being said, this manual does not cover more advanced topics such as:

• Storing theme options in custom database structures
• Creating admin panels with multiple tabs
• Creating top level WordPress admin menus

However, if you know how to create tabbed html pages and/or use php to access a database directly, then this manual should get you going on those things as well.

Once you have finished this guide, you will know how to edit wordpress by adding options to your favorite wordpress theme and building a panel to make updating your option settings a breeze.

Also included with this manual is a modified version of the default wordpress theme which contains an admin menu having seven options and illustrating how to use the following major form controls to manage your options:

• Text Boxes
• Text Areas
• Check Boxes
• Radio Buttons
• Select Menus
• Multi-select Menus
• Multi-option Check Boxes

The included ( very basic ) theme is not meant for normal use, but rather to clearly illustrated how to customize WordPress with extra options.

For only $7.00, this manual ( and the included code ) could save you hours or even days spent trying to track down solid information showing how to edit wordpress for your own purposes.

Grab a copy now for only $7.00!

For wordpress, I recommend grabbing the Simple Google Sitemap plugin to do this for you.

If you need help getting it installed, see setting up new plugins in wordpress.

Creating and Submitting Your XML Sitemap

Upload an empty sitemap.xml file to your wordpress root directory

To create an empty sitemap.xml, I recommend creating it on your server directly as follows:

Log into cpanel for your server

Open the “File Manager”

It is located in the “Files” section on the right side

Browse to /public_html/ on the left side

Select “New File”

It looks like a piece of paper with a green + on it and is at the far left of the top menu

A window should come up to create a new file

Enter sitemap.xml into the File Name box

Select “Create new file”

You should now see a sitemap.xml file in the /public_html/ folder

This should be /public_html/ if you set wordpress up as your site.

If you have an empty sitemap.xml file on your computer and want to upload it instead, you can do this with cpanel or ftp

Change the file permission to be writable

In cpanel, edit the permissions to 666 (RW-RW-RW-)

Log into cpanel

Select the File Manager

Go to your site root

Select "/public_html/ or Web Root on the left menu

Click the box next to your sitemap.xml file

Select "File Permissions" from the top menu

Change the file permissions to read+write for everyone

666 (numeric) or rw-rw-rw-

Save the attributes

Active Simple Google Sitemap in WordPress

Select "Plugins" from the admin menu

Find Simple Google Sitemap and select activate

Create Your Sitemap

Select "Settings" → "Simple Sitemap"

Select "Save Options"

Publish your Sitemap

Select "Create Sitemap"

If you get a notice that any of them failed, just click the link and it should work.

Thats it. Your site should now be indexed rather quickly by ask.com, google.com, msn.com, and yahoo.com.

Note: It appears that something has been changed and the Simple Google Sitemap plugin no longer works properly with yahoo.com. If yahoo gives you errors, don’t worry about it.

While there are a variety of traffic tools available, I have had no complaints about Google Analytics and recommend it for store traffic sites.

With Google Analytics, you can see:

• How many visitors your site is getting
• Where visitors are coming from
• How much traffic individual pages are getting
• How many people are leaving your site
• Various other interesting statistics

Setting up Google Analytics

Visit Google Analytics

If you don’t have one, you will need to create a Google account as well.

Select "Add Website Profile"

This will take you to the Create New Website Profile page

Make sure "Add a Profile for a new domain is selected.

Enter the URL for your website

e.g. www.yoursite.com

Select Finish

This will take you to a page with a tracking code.

Copy the displayed tracking code

To do this:

Click in the Tracking Code box

The code should highlight automatically

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

Place the tracking code on your site

• For Atahualpa Theme Users

Log into WordPress

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "HTML/CSS Inserts" from under the Atahualpa Theme Options header

Scroll down to the HTML Inserts: Body Bottom box

Paste the tracking code into the box

Click in the box

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

Save your changes

Select "Save Changes" from the bottom of the page

Make your site send information to Google Analytics

Load your website now that tracking is installed.

In Google Analytics, select "Finish"

This will return to your list of tracked sites

You should see your site with a yellow triangle denoting that tracking is not installed.

Select "Edit" next to your sites listing

This will take you to the sites profile

Select "Check Status"

This should be to the top right of the displayed table

It should now list your tracking status as "Waiting for Data"

If not, load your page again and then come back and select check status again.

Wait a day or two and you can start viewing your traffic stats

Enabling search robot scanning of your site

1. Log into WordPress
2. Select "Settings" → "Privacy"
3. For "Blog Visibility" select "I would like my blog to be visible…"
4. Select "Save Changes"

Search engine robots will now go through your site and index it eventually.

I recommend having a terms of service page, especially if you want someplace to put legal notices for potential customers or viewers.

If you want to profess lack of legal liability over possible happening, this is the place for it.

In addition to displaying legal notices, a terms of service page is also said to make ranking organically with search engines easier.

Such a page can be used to provide potential customers with detailed information on your shipping policies and also be used as a frequently answered questions document where shipping is related.

Some things you might place on a shipping information page:

What methods you use to ship

USPS, UPS, etc.

What days you ship on

Perhaps you only ship items out on wednesdays…

How you package your goods

Whether you combine shipping on multiple items or not

Whether you ship worldwide or not

And if so, if there are any special requirements

Whether you offer shipping insurance or not

Frequently asked questions about shipping

Hopefully along with the answers to them…

Such a page can give potential customer a sense of trust as well as lower the amount of questions that come in about how you ship.

If you sell via bonanzle, you can put a link to such a page on your more information section.

To create a shipping information page, just create a new page in wordpress, name it something like "Shipping Information" and enter your shipping information.

I recommend turning comments on for it so that people can ask questions right on your shipping page.

If you are worried about a menu getting too long, you might make your "About Us" page a parent to your shipping information page.

A privacy policy page should tell users what kind of data (if any) your site collects and how you use collected data.

According to many knowledgeable internet marketers, it is easier to gain organic search ranking in the big search engines if you have a privacy policy than if you do not have one.

For a site designed to send search traffic on to a store, I recommend creating a privacy policy, even if it only tells users that you do not track or keep information about them…though you really should use something akin to google analytics to track traffic…and you can make note of that on your privacy policy page.

Creating a Privacy Policy Page

1. Log into WordPress
2. Select "Pages" → "Add New"
3. For title, enter Privacy Policy
4. Enter your privacy policy information into the body
5. Specify any other options you want
6. Save your new page

See my Privacy Policy for an example.

Atahualpa pages and posts generally are made up of five parts:

• The Kicker (displayed above the post or page title)
• The Header (you enter this when you create content)
• The Byline (displayed between the header and body)
• The Body (you enter this when you create content)
• The Footer (displayed after the body)

By default, the main one that is put to use is the footer, which shows the number of comments, tags, etc. for a post or page.

The Kicker, the Byline, and the Footer are shared between types of objects.

The Homepage

You can set a custom kicker, byline, and footer on your home page.

The header can be a good place to put a link to your store, while the byline makes a good spot for key links or a description of what you offer.

Multi-Post Pages

These are pages (such as category pages and archives) where multiple posts are displayed at a time.

Any kicker, byline, or footer you setup for Multi-Post pages will be shared by all of them and displayed for each post.

For a selling site, I prefer to place only the post date (in the byline), but you might want to display the author, tags, categories, or other information.

Single Post Pages

Kickers, bylines, and footers set for single post pages will be displayed on each individual post.

Some common uses for them are:

• Displaying the date, author, tags, and/or categories for the post
• Displaying site wide offers or informational links

Single Page Pages

Kickers, bylines, and footers set for "Page" pages are shared between them and displayed on each page.

Some common uses for them are:

• Displaying the date and/or author for the page
• Displaying banners, offers, widgets, or links

Customizing Kickers, Bylines, and Footers

Read the Post Info Items information

Log into WordPress

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "Post Info Items"

Read the information displayed there.

The below image shows an example of a customized wordpress homepage using the Atahualpa theme (version 3.2).

Creating a page like the one displayed above is covered by this article. As you can see this particular layout has:

A link to the store

Setup as a home page kicker in atahualpa

A headline and introductory blurb

To give customers a bit of information about your store

A featured categories section

To list featured categories in your store

These can link directly to your store, to category showcases, or to category directories.

An incentives section

This can be used for anything, but in the above page it is used to show incentives for buying from that particular store.

A shipping information section

In this case it notes that shipping is combined on all orders, that all new packaging is used, and provides a link to the sites shipping details page

The most recent product showcases and articles on the site

These are shown automatically as they are posted on the right side of the page.

The number to show can be manually set.

If using my product showcase module, links to product showcases on the right also provide direct links to view the item on the store as well as the store category that the item is in.

Requirements for using the below homepage as is

If you want to be able to use this homepage without having to modify theme files, then you will need to be using the Atahualpa theme ( version 3.2 ). These instructions do not currently work for newer versions due to changes in the theme.

Of course, with a bit of work you can probably work it into any theme.

Note: All instructions below assume that:

You are running WordPress with the Atahualpa 3.2 theme activated.

These files will require some editing for other themes

You are hosting your files on Hostgator

For other hosts, they should be good enough as long as you are running on a linux server and/or using cpanel

Of course, some steps provided might not be exactly right, but they should be good enough to get things setup.

Step 1: Adding the customized homepages CSS entries

Before you place up the customized homepage and edit it, you should first add the styling sections to it.

Adding CSS Sections to Atahualpa

Copy the text in the below box

Click in the box

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

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

/* entire wrapper for home page */
table.pws-home-wrapper {
	border: none;
	background: #FFFFFF;
}

/* left side of home page (table) */
td.pws-home-left {
	border: none;
	background: #FFFFFF;
        width: 50%;
        vertical-align: top;
}

td.pws-home-left table {
	border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
	background: #FFFFFF;
        width: 95%;
}

/* each item in left side of home page (table) */
.pws-home-lbone {

}

.pws-home-lbtwo {

}

.pws-home-lbthree {

}

/* right side of home page */
td.pws-home-right {
	border: none;
	background: #FFFFFF;
        vertical-align: top;
}
td.pws-home-right table {
	border: none;
	background: #FFFFFF;
}

/* tables containing post pieces in right side of home */
table.pws-home-item {
	border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
	background: #EEEEEE;
}
/* title of each post */
.pws-home-itemhead {
	font-weight: bold;
        border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
}
.pws-home-item td {
        border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
}
.pws-home-item td a.more-link {
        float: right;
}

.pws-home-itembody img {
	width: 60px;
	height: 48px;
	float: left;
	margin-right: 0.5em;
	margin-bottom: 0.25em;
}

.pws-home-itemfoot {
	text-size: 85%;
}

Paste the copied text into Atahualpa’s CSS Inserts

To do so:

Log into wordpress

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options" from the admin menu.

This will load the Atahualpa Theme Options page

Select "HTML/CSS Inserts" from under the Atahualpa Theme Options header

This will load the HTML/CSS Inserts page

Find the "CSS Inserts" box and paste the css into it

Scroll to the bottom of the box.

Put your cursor at the end of the last line of text.

Press enter on your keyboard to create a new line.

Select "Edit" → "Paste" to add the css entries.

Save your changes

Select the "Save Changes" box at the bottom of the page.

Now that you have your css entries added, it is time to get the homepage file, edit it, and place it on your site.

Step 2: Download the customized homepage file

Download my Atahualpa Customized Homepage One file

Save it somewhere that you will find it.

Extract the contents of atahualpa-customized-homepage-one.zip

The only file in it is home.php.

Most people can download zip files easier than php files.

See how to extract zip files on windows if you need help.

Step 3: Edit the contents of home.php

Now that you have the customized homepage downloaded and extracted, it is time to modify it for your site.

Open home.php in the editor of your choice.

Click it with your right mouse button and select "Edit" if you are using windows

Edit the headline for your page

Scroll down and find the section that has <!– Post Headline –> above it.

Edit the headline for your page

Replace HEADLINE-FOR-YOUR-PAGE with the headline you want for your homepage.

I recommend using at least one of your sites primary keywords in the title.

See Basic Keyword Research and Domain Keyword Research if needed.

Edit the Top Left Box

This box is designed to link to your category showcases, category directories, and store categories.

Edit the Box Header

Scroll down to the section that starts with <!–Left Box One–>.

Replace FEATURED CATEGORIES HERE with an appropriate header

If possible, keep it short and include one of your targeted site keywords.

Edit the Box Contents

The box contains both an introductory blurb and category links

Change the introductory blurb

This is located inside of <p> and </p> tags.

If you can make it sound natural, use at least one of your site targeted keywords in it.

Change the links

For each link:

• Replace CATEGORY-SHOWCASE-LINK with a link to a category showcase, category directory, or category on your store.
• Replace CATEGORY-TITLE with a short, descriptive title for the link.
• Replace CATEGORY NAME with the name of the category to link to.

If you need more links:

Add new <li><a href=""></a></li> lines among those that are there and edit them.

Edit the link to your store

Replace the URL displayed with the URL to your store.

• Bonanzle sellers just need to replace BOOTH-NAME with the name of their Bonanzle booth

Replace BOOTH-TITLE with a short descriptive title for your store

Edit the 2nd Left Box

By default, the second box on the left side is used to display incentives and/or reasons to buy from you rather than someone else. Of course, you can use it for whatever you want.

To start editing it for your site, scroll down and find <!–Left Box Two–>

Edit the Box Title

Find BUYING-FROM-US-OR-INCENTIVES-TITLE.

Replace it with the title you want for the box.

If you can think of a good, short phrase which contains one of your main site keywords, do so…but don’t sweat it.

Something like "Why by from (storename)" or "Reasons to shop with" might be decent.

Edit the Box Contents

This box contains a short preface followed by a few links.

If you don’t want links, remove the <a href="LINK-HERE"> and </a> tags from around an item.

Replace the "When you buy from us…" blurb

Keep the P tags around it.

Use at least one broad site keyword if you can make it sound natural to do so.

Add any links or pieces of information you want displayed

You can create posts and link them here.

You can link pages on your site or store.

For each link:

• Replace LINK-HERE with the URL of the page you want to link to.
• Replace LINK-TITLE with a quick introductory title to the item being linked.
• Replace NAME-FOR-LINK-HERE with the name you want for the link.

Update or remove the blurb after the links

If you want more information after the links, edit the line after them that is between <p> and </p> tags.

If you don’t want information after the links, delete everything from the line <!–second section–> to <!–end second section–>

Edit the 3rd Left Box

The third box on the left is intended to give people quick information related to shipping, handling, packaging, etc.

Of course, you can put anything you want in the box.

Edit the Box Title

Replace SHIPPING-PACKING-OR-WHATEVER-TITLE with the title you want.

Something like YourStoreName Shipping Details might be good.

Edit the Box Contents

This box contains a short preface followed by a bulleted list then another short informational blurb.

Replace the intro blurb

I recommend leaving the <p> and </p> tags in and only updating the text between them.

Edit the list items

Each list item is between <li> and </li> tags.

You can add more items by copying a line and placing it in with the others.

You can remove items by deleting an entire line

Edit the second blurb

If you have a shipping details page, place the URL to it between the quotes after href=

If you want a shipping details page, create a new page for shipping details

If you don’t want a shipping details page, remove and/or replace everything between the <p> and </p> tags in the second blurb.

Adding more boxes on the left

If you want more boxes on the left side, you can create a new table before, between, or after the existing boxes.

The base of the table should look like:

<table class="pws-l-default">

<tr><td>

YOUR CONTENT HERE

</td></tr>

</table>

When entering information in the box, I recommend enclosing text which is not part of a list inside of <p> and </p> tags to make it display nicely.

You could have whatever you want in these boxes. Some ideas:

• Your picture with a brief biography linking to your about page
• Lists of good articles related to what you sell
• Offers for magazines, books, or other items related to what you sell
• Free ebooks related to the items you sell

When finished making changes, save this file

Select "File" → "Save" from the file menu.

Step 4: Prepare your posts for your modified home page

Your home page will look quite funny if you include entire posts in it.

Before you place your homepage up, you should go through all of your existing posts and be sure to place a <!–more–> tag after the first sentence or two.

The more tag tells WordPress to only show the content before it on post which make use of it when displaying them on archival pages…or this customized home page.

Step 5: Modifying Atahualpa Theme Options

To get posts on your front page to show properly, you should alter the more tag settings within atahualpa theme options.

Make sure Posts or Excerpts on Home page is set to "Full Posts"

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options" in the admin menu

Select "Posts or Excerpts" under the Atahualpa Theme Options header

Next to "Posts or excerpts on HOME page?", make sure that Full Posts is selected.

Make sure that "Show the first X posts…" is greater than zero. It should be set to the number of posts you want displayed on your home page. If you get an empty right side on your home page, this is the problem.

If you changed it, select "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

You should also be sure that the right sidebar is not displayed on your homepage

Disable the right sidebar on your homepage.

To do this:

• Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"
• Select "Sidebars" from under the Atahualpa Theme Options header.
• In the "Right Sidebar: Display on" section, uncheck "Homepage"
• Save your changes

Step 6: Upload your custom home.php page

Now that everything is prepared, upload your home.php file

Upload home.php to the atahualpa theme directory on your server

This should be /public_html/wp-content/themes/atahualpa if you are using hostgator and have installed wordpress on the root of your website.

Review your customized home page

If you see any posts on the right side with a large amount of text, you probably forgot to add a <!–more–> tag to such posts. You will know it needs such a tag for sure if there is no "Read more →" link at the bottom of the post.

If you want to make further changes, you can either use the built in editor or edit home.php locally and re-upload the file.

If there are serious problems which you cannot fix immediately, delete the home.php file you uploaded off of the server and things should return to normal.

Step 7: Adding Special Sections (Atahualpa Only)

If you are using Atahualpa, each post and page is made of five parts:

• A Kicker (displayed above the headline)
• The Headline (you create this for each post or page)
• A Byline (displayed between the header and the body)
• The Body (you create this for each post or page)
• A Footer (displayed under the body)

For this theme, I recommend setting up your home page kicker and your home page byline.

Creating your homepage Kicker

This will be displayed above the title on your home page.

Go to Post/Page Info Items in Atahualpa Theme Options

Select "Appearance" → "Atahualpa Theme Options"

Select "Post/Page Info Items" under the Atahualpa Theme Options header

Edit KICKER: Homepage

I recommend a link to your store.

<a href="STORE-LINK" title="DESC">LINK-NAME</a>

You might have it read Visit the (link) today!

Edit BYLINE: Homepage

I recommend an introductory blurb for your site.

This will be placed between the header and the rest of the page.

Save your changes

Select "Save Changes" from the bottom of the page

Reload your home page and you should now display your kicker and byline.

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