Ycademy Seminar February 2013 The upcoming Ycademy Online Seminar will focus on Search Engine Optimization and Loading Speed of self-hosted WordPress based websites, and particularly on sites powered by Semiomantics developments. While WordPress remains one of the most popular platforms for online publishing, the way it needs to be configured for optimized impact has changed over the years. Important changes on the Google algorithm in 2012 and the resulting consequences have been felt by many webmasters. In order to help customers to get the best out of their websites, it is important to understand the way Google perceives and evaluates websites and their content.  The Purpose of the WP SEO Seminar The purpose of the Ycademy WP SEO Seminar is to Learn about the most recent modifications of Google’s evaluation criteria. Learn how to set-up, structure, organize and optimize a new WordPress website Improve SEO on existing websites Implement basic SEO features Implement advanced SEO features  Basic Optimization Optimizing Titles Optimizing Permalinks Optimizing Meta-tags Optimizing Media Sitemap Theme Optimization We are looking specifically at Semiomantics XO for WordPress. As the theme contains basic Optimization elements, we will just look at some optional advanced features which are part of custom optimization at Semiomantics. Advanced SEO Duplicate content Strip [...]

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Mobile Apps Apps will be the big topic of 2013, mainly because there is a major shift of web traffic towards the mobile web and consequently traffic harvesting will be more efficient through apps than through browser based websites. The Ycademy January Seminar will focus on Apps Basics and different ways to convert WordPress blogs to hybrid and native apps. Apps Workshops The Seminar will be composed of a variety of Workshops dealing with Mobile Apps and namely on the conversion of a WordPress driven site to mobile apps for different platforms. You will learn about the differences between hybrid and native apps, HTML 5 apps and the different architecture imposed by platform owners, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and RIM. While there are costly and complex developments available, this seminar will focus on basics and the most simple ways of making WP available on mobile; the solutions we will implement will be appreciated by many customers, while for others they will just constitute a starting point for more sophisticated and efficient developments. More information will follow. All materials will be provided. Tools needed: Photoshop and FTP Client. Schedule January 26 -27, 2013 as usual starting at 1 pm London Time each day [...]

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WordPress and Blurb Semiomantics is ready with an XO release candidate for WordPress 3.5. We will therefore look into the latest WP developments and the theme updates. Also Blurb has released the integration software for InDesign, which provides smashing professional editing features for off and on line book publishers. Here is the Schedule for the October Seminar: Blurb on Saturday October 27, 2012 Blurb is expanding fast and adding new features and tools rapidly. New high quality paper, covers and integration tools namely for Word and InDesign provide all we need for prestigious publications. But there is more, such as Facebook book publishing … We will give an overview over the recent developments of Blurb and Blurb ProLine before integrating Blurb with InDesign. Creating a book with InDesign and Blurb Creating a book is a bit like developing a Website in as much as planning is required and some important decisions should be taken before starting the editing job. Title or Topic of the book Content (example Photos, Images and Text, etc) Approximate number of pages Format of the book Paper (type, weight and color) Cover Layout Fonts Eventual color scheme We will go through each of the above with [...]

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Marketing with WordPress and Adobe CS6 Seminar The Ycademy September 2012 Seminar will focus on Marketing with WordPress and Adobe CS6. We will also spend some time on the Photobook we started working on at the July Seminar. Marketing with WordPress Making money with your blog or WordPress based website is function of multiple elements we have explored in the past. This time we will resume some of the criteria which are of paramount importance on the Path to Profitability and add some new ideas, namely the most recent techniques of mixing content from two or more sources into single new original posts. The interest is in the fact that ‘commercial content’ can be mixed into editorials automatically and in a contextually relevant matter. In fact, if our author blog uses as main categories say, ‘home and gardening’, ‘yoga’, ‘photography’ and  ’my cat’, then contextual commercial content (ads for example) can be prepared for each category to be mixed in to the posts. The ads are set up as custom posts based on commercial feeds or contents originating from affiliate programs (merchants) or from our own shops. Th suggested technique will make life easier for publishers and produce feeds including commercial [...]

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1. New Marketing Concept with Semiomantics XOMS The Ycademy August Seminar will focus on the new Marketing Concept using WordPress Multi-Site structures developed by Semiomantics. The new developments implement the most recent groundbreaking ideas when it comes to WordPress based semantic website development. Why a new Marketing Concept Recent changes of the Google algorithm as well as the developments of WordPress to more flexible taxonomies open new perspectives for developers who aim for high impact on Google search. Semiomantics is specialized in excellent semantic exploitation of WordPress as well as of Google. WordPress Multi-Site for advanced Marketing and high Impact While WP custom taxonomies allow for better structured content and CMS like flexibility when building customized site structures, the resulting canonical permalinks do not always satisfy Semiomantics high standards of optimization. For this reason we have been running performance tests since April to measure the impact of various set-ups and alternatives. Interestingly, the Multi-Site concept offers better overall performance than structures with complex custom taxonomies. Seminar participants will convert an existing site into a Multi-Site site testing the Semiomantics XOMS Theme and script. 2. Advanced Photo Editing with Photoshop CS6 With the release of Adobe’s Photoshop CS6 a bunch of [...]

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Adobe CS6 and Semiomantics for WordPress This month’s online seminar will focus on two main areas: Adobe Photoshop CS6 and OnOne Photo-tools New Pro Plugins for Semiomantics WordPress Developments Photoshop CS6 and OnOne Photo-tools With the release of CS6 Photoshop has come back with some smashing upgrades namely for photographers. We will go through the new features and test them in our hands on workshops. If you are not yet in possession of Photoshop CS6 Extended, get the trial version from HERE Besides the Plugin series for Photoshop, OnOne provides a standalone suite of photo editing tools. This suite traces a perfect workflow for photo editing outside Photoshop. We will work with the tool and test out some of the smashing features. If you don’t have this program, you can download a 30 day trial version from HERE New Pro Plugins for Semiomantics XO on WordPress Fed up by the vulnerabilities and bugs caused by free plugins? There is some great stuff available out there with clean code provided by professional developers. At Semiomantics we have selected a series of professional plugs for the purpose of the seminar and further developments which we will implement. Also, in view of the [...]

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Customizing WordPress Child Theme In this tutorial we will create Custom Post Types and add variables and functionality to them. Also we will add some styling for more user-friendly display in the dashboard. Having set up our basic Child Theme structure we will now proceed with the customization. But before that we will do some basic WP configuration and go through the settings. You may be used to building WordPress based sites and therefore you may have some habits in as much as settings and configuration are concerned. Some basic WP Settings Here is what I do in the dashboard: 1. Trash and permanently delete the Hello World Post. 2. Delete the default Links. 3. Set Permalinks to: /%category%/%postname%/ 4. Under Settings General enter Blog Name and Tagline; for the purpose of this exercise I use  as a Title: WordPress TTP and as a Tagline: Tips, Themes and Plugins 5. Add some content to test content display by importing an RSS feed using a plugin such as Feedwordpress. I pulled into a new category called Blog the feed from my author-blog at: http://yorgonestoridis.com/feed Custom Posts and Child Theme We have set up a basic child theme for the purpose of [...]

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Ycademy: Facebook, WP and the Mobile Web Ycademy Online Seminar This month’s Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on March 24 and 25, starting at 1 pm London (GMT) time and ending at 21 pm London time on both days. Some of our developers have asked for a program covering Social Networks, namely Facebook and the Mobile Web and how to take advantage of them to distribute, promote and gain high visibility with own content.   The Seminar will cover the following areas: 1. Facebook and other Social Networks Strategies for Individuals Strategies for Businesses Strategy for Brands As you may know, Facebook will change  the rules of the game on March 31, when the new FB pages will be released (again!). In fact the new FB page format will be similar to the timeline format and a few important changes will be of utmost importance to businesses and promoters. New Facebook Cover Photo and Profile Image Larger, Highlighted and Pinned Posts Company Milestones New Applications Facebook Offers FB Insights, Admin Panel and Messaging Facebook Advertizing If some of the above topics do not have a meaning for you, never mind: we will deal with them and make sure you [...]

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Media Focused Development for Professionals and Amateurs, The new Semiomantics EVO for WordPress sets new standards for beauty and excellent publishing paired with eCommerce.

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Semiomantics EVO Developer Theme 2 years ago, about at the same time of the year, we have built Evo, an Action script driven Flash photo and portfolio website. This time we will make use of HTML5, CSS3 and Java Script to customize Semiomantics EVO, a Semiomantics development for Developers.    Semiomantics Evo Flash is not anymore a smart option for development for as long as Apple mobile devices are as popular as they are and for as long as mobile Apple devices will not display Flash. Therefore we have been looking for an alternative to produce smashing and eye-catching sites based on HTML5. Of course the good old Evo Flash driven sites still look great. As a lot of work has been put into them we will try to use namely all the edited images and footage in the new EVO version.  Semiomantics EVO Version 2012 The biggest changes are: EVO is now powered by WordPress EVO does not use any Flash but is a responsive HTML5, CSS3 and Java script theme. The new EVO assembles the ultimate in WordPress design and features for modern media display. Ideal for photographers, EVO features not less than 6 different Gallery Types. Galleries [...]

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