What Does WPCoder Do?

Web designers are no doubt familiar with companies that specialize in PSD to HTML/CSS conversion. There are hundreds of these companies and most guarantee conversion in a specific number of hours or days. WPCoder is similar, but rather than providing you with the HTML and CSS, they code your design into a WordPress theme. So as the designer you will be able to focus on creating the look that you or your client wants, and WPCoder will handle the coding and the conversion into a functional WordPress theme.

Why Would Designers Use This Service?

Like a PSD to HTML service, the main benefit is that you can save time, which you can then use for other projects or purposes. If the time that you can save is worth more to you than the cost of the service, you may want to consider outsouring the coding. Another reason that some designers choose to use WPCoder is that not all designers are comfortable and experienced with coding WordPress themes. In this case, you can outsource to developers that work with WordPress themes on a daily basis.

Pricing

Unlike most PSD to HTML companies, WPCoder does not have standard pricing based on turnaround time and other details. They price each project individually, so if you are interested in using their services you can contact them with the details of your project and get a quote.

The Process

As I mentioned, to start the process you will contact WPCoder to get a quote. When contacting them, their website allows you to upload the PSD files that you would like to have coded, as well as your instructions or any relevant details that need to be shared. A manager from WPCoder will then contact you shortly with a price and a target date of completion. If you would like to move forward you will be invoiced for 50% of the payment up front and they will get started when payment has been made. You’ll then see a working demo of your theme and when it gets your approval you will be billed for the remaining 50%. When that payment is made you will get the theme files.

The Client Area

One of the conveniences of working with WPCoder is that they have a great client area where everything is kept. Rather than emailing back and forth, all messages between you and WPCoder will be done through the client area and you will get an email whenever they post a new message (the email also contains the message). This is helpful because all of your instructions for the coder are in one place, and if you need to reference something later in the process you won’t have to go searching through your sent emails to see exactly what you said to them and when.

The client area also contains the PSDs that you upload and your theme files (when it is done) so that you can download. I found the client area to be very convenient and I appreciated that all of the messages from me and from WPCoder were stored and accessible in one location, which reduces the chance of poor communication.

My Experience

I contacted WPCoder over a weekend to get an estimate and I received a response on Monday morning from a manager with a quote and a date of completion. Both sounded fair to me so we moved forward and I was quickly contacted by the coder who would be handling my project. The communication throughout the process was very good and the theme was in my hands well before the deadline.

The quality of the coding done by WPCoder was very good and after testing the theme for a while I really couldn’t find anything that needed to be changed other than separation of the trackbacks/pingbacks from comments, which was requested at the time the project began.

The only negative part of my experience with WPCoder is that it took several days to get the trackbacks and pingbacks separated from the comments. I expected to have a few minor issues that needed to go back to the coder for further attention, but everything else was completely taken care of. However, I was surprised that it took several days to get this corrected. This wasn’t a major issue to me and did not have a significant impact on my overall level of satisfaction.

My experience with WPCoder was very positive and I can definitely recommend their services to designers who want to work with professional coders who will help them with WordPress theme development.

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Brooke – Shopp Plugin for WordPress
Juggles – Magento theme and widget from Silverthemes
Sonali Agrawal – Premium template from AlgoZone
Welshstew – Magento theme from MagThemes
Vincent – Shopify theme from ThemeForest
Jorde – Shopify theme from ThemeForest

In case you missed any of the content about e-commerce websites from this week, here are links to all of the posts:

• E-Commerce Web Design Toolbox – DesignM.ag
• 40+ Magento Themes for E-Commerce Websites – DesignM.ag
• 15 Resources for Setting Up an E-Commerce Site with WordPress – DesignM.ag
• 30+ CRE Loaded Templates – DesignM.ag
• Design an E-Commerce Website in Photoshop – DesignM.ag
• 30+ osCommerce Templates – DesignM.ag
• Interview with Daniel Weinand of Shopify – DesignM.ag
• 30+ Zen Cart Templates – DesignM.ag
• “Add to Cart” Button Showcase – Vandelay Design
• 20 Inspirational, Clean E-Commerce Website Designs – Vandelay Design
• 9 Characteristics of Well-Designed E-Commerce Websites – Vandelay Design

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This is a joint giveaway being done at both Vandelay Design and DesignM.ag so be sure to read the details below about how it will be run, plus you’ll obviously want to check out the great prizes that are available. All of the prizes will help you get your own e-commerce site up and running, or if you already have one, to improve it in some way.

If you’re interested in e-commerce design I hope that you will benefit from the content this week, and be sure to check out our gallery of e-commerce sites, CartFrenzy, to get some design inspiration.

Prizes Being Given Away:

Shopp Plugin for WordPress

Shopp is a premium WordPress plugin that will allow you to run an e-commerce site on WordPress. It has a ton of features that will allow you to set up the shop to suit your needs. One winner will get a free license for the plugin.

Magento Theme and Widget from Silverthemes

Silverthemes offers premium Magento themes, widgets, and related services. They currently have 14 themes and 6 widgets available for purchase. One winner will get to select a theme and a widget of their choice.

Premium Magento Theme from MagThemes.com

MagThemes offers free and premium Magento themes. They currently have 10 premium themes available for purchase. One winner will get a free premium theme of their choice.

E-Commerce Template from AlgoZone

AlgoZone offers premium templates/themes for osCommerce, Zen Cart, CRE Loaded and Magento. They have a very large selection to choose from, with templates for all kinds of different shops. One winner will get to choose from the templates that are priced at $150 and below.

Shopify Themes from ThemeForest

ThemeForest is a leading provider of premium themes and templates for a wide variety of platforms, as well as general HTML/CSS templates. They currently have 9 Shopify themes available for purchase. ThemeForest is giving away $25 in free credits to two winners that can be used to purchase the Shopify theme of your choice.

The Rules:

This giveaway is being held at both Vandelay Design and Designm.ag. There will be 6 winners in total, 3 from the comments at each site. Each person who wishes to enter the contest may enter twice, once at Vandelay Design and once at DesignM.ag, by leaving a comment.

In order to match winners up with their preferred prize, we are asking that you specify in your comments which prizes you would like to win and in what order. If there is only one prize that you are interested in, then just list one. If you would be happy with any of the prizes, then please rank them from 1 to 5 (1 being your first choice and 5 being your last choice).

On Friday, July 31 I will pull random numbers to determine the 3 winners at each site. The first winner selected will get the prize of their choice. The second winner will get their preferred prize that is still available, and so on until all 6 winners and prizes have been matched up.

When the winners have been determined I will post an announcement at both Vandelay Design and DesignM.ag. Good luck! (Here is a direct link to the giveaway post on DesignM.ag so you can comment there if you would like.)

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FlashMint.com has offered to give premium WordPress themes for free to five readers of Vandelay Design. If you’re not familiar with FlashMint.com, they offer a variety of premium Flash templates, Flash CMS templates and Stock Music Packages. In addition to WordPress themes, they also have templates for other content management systems like osCommerce and Joomla.

FlashMint.com has a large selection of templates, especially in the general Flash templates and Flash CMS templates categories. They also make it easier to find what you are looking for by providing links to all of the templates for particular purposes, such as real estate, photography, charity and much more.

The Giveaway Details:

To see the prizes that are available, please visit the WordPress themes page at FlashMint.com. They currently have 16 themes available. Find one that you would like to win, and leave a comment on this post with the theme name or item ID saying what you would like to use it for. On Friday, July 24 I will select the five random winners and they will be contacted via email.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• Monique
• Dimitar Tsonev
• Olivia
• Spery
• Savas

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UPrinting has offered to give away 5 prizes of 1,000 business cards to readers of the Vandelay Design blog! If you’re not familiar with UPrinting, they have been a printing leader for over 25 years and they offer a very wide variety of quality printing services, including business cards, brochures, calendars, menus, posters, postcards, envelopes, and more.UPrinting offers convenient ordering for business cards. Their site includes a pricing calculator that allows you to choose all of the size, stock, color, and quantity so you can see the price before even getting started. Shipping costs can also be calculated.

To avoid bad prints, UPrinting offers a free file review option before any payment has been made. They will review your file for technical errors that could cause potential problems with the printing.

Giveaway Details:

Five readers of the blog will win 1,000 business cards each, plus free ground shipping (only to residents of the US and Canada due to international shipping costs) courtesy of UPrinting.

To enter the contest, please leave a comment on this post stating that you would like to enter, or tell us how you would use the business cards if you win. On Friday, July 10 I will select five random winners and this post will be updated at that time. The winners will be contacted by email (be sure to leave a valid email address with your comment).

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who participated. Here are the winners (you will be contacted shortly):

• Corey Burns
• Devlin
• Linda van Rosmalen
• Burt Pardue
• Brian Cassidy

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If you’re not familiar with Fanurio, it is a software application that provides freelancers with a number of features for tracking time, invoicing, and tracking the status of those invoices. Invoice templates are available, even as part of the free trial. In addition, Fanurio includes a reporting system that will help you to analyze your use of time and how it impacts your income. For more information on the features see Fanurio’s Features Overview.

There are many options for invoicing and time tracking, and most are web-based solutions that involve a monthly fee. Fanurio is cross-platform software that comes with a one-time charge of $59 to purchase the license with no on-going monthly fees.

The Giveaway Details:

If you would like to win one of these five licenses, please leave a comment on this post to express your interest. On Saturday, June 13th I will use a random number generator to select five random winners. At that time I will update this post to announce the winners, and I’ll contact them via email (please leave a valid email with your comment so you can be contacted if you win).

If you aren’t one of the lucky five winners, you can always download a free trial of Fanurio to see how you like it.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who participated. Here are the winners:

• Sean Haney
• Federica
• Lonnie
• Elio
• Eric

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FlashEff2 will continue to offer the same benefits as FlashEff, but of course there will be some new features as well. There are hundreds of new presets that make it even easier, the file size has been reduced, most patterns have been optimzed for better performance, there is a new button effects mode, and more.

The beta (free) version will be working for at least one month. Once the beta version expires you will have access to the standard free version permanently (there are also Premium and Premium Plus licenses available). The free version can be used on as many computers as you want and for commercial or non-commercial projects, and of course you can upgrade to a premium plan if you choose.

If you’d like beta access, here are the details:

• Any comment on this post with a valid email address will get free access to FlashEff2 Beta for free (Premium Plus package).
• May 18th is the last day to comment in order to get the free beta access.
• After May 18th you will receive an email from FlashEff/Jumpeye Components with a link for access.

There is no limit to the number of commenters that are being offered the beta access, so if you want it all you have to do is leave a comment with a valid email address. If you have comments or feedback about the product during the beta access, you will have the opportunity to share that with Jumpeye.

Enjoy FlashEff2!

UPDATE: The deadline has now passed. Those of you who already left a comment will be contacted by email by Jumpeye/FlashEff.

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For full disclosure, this is not a paid review, but I did get some services in exchange for the review, although that will not affect the opinions and information shared. In this review I’ll cover my impressions of the work that I received from Markup4U, their level of communication and timeliness. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to share screen shots of the site that was coded due to privacy issues, but hopefully the information provided will still help you. Markup4U coded two pages of a client website for me, the homepage and one secondary page, which I then used as the foundation for other secondary pages.

This was my first experience with a PSD to HTML service. I’ve always done the design and coding of my projects for various reasons, partly out of habit, partly because I didn’t know who to choose, and partly because I thought it would be inconvenient to work with someone else’s code.

Quality of Work

If you pay attention to PSD to HTML services and what designers think about their experiences with these providers, you’ll see a really wide variety of opinions. Some say they love the work that was done for them, and others complain of poor quality code and unprofessional service. I know I’ve read completely opposing comments about specific service providers.

With conflicting information like this out there, it’s hard to know who you’ll get quality work from. Personally, I question the legitimacy of the blog and forum comments about these types of services, because many of them seem to be fake. That means that designers will be hesitant to trust anyone that they do not have personal experience with. This is one of the reasons that I have been hesitant to use PSD to HTML services, but Markup4U is one of the companies that seems to have a very solid reputation.

I was very pleased with the quality of code that was provided by Markup4U. One of the first things I did was to validate the HTML and CSS, and both passed with no problems. As an independent designer that works primarily on small projects, it’s rare that I work with someone else’s code, other than maintenance on other sites, which isn’t something I do very often. This is one of the reasons I have hesitated to use PSD to HTML services in the past, because I figured it would take time to see what the coder was doing and time would be wasted finding what I wanted, particularly in the CSS file. However, this was a very minor issue on the site that Markup4U coded. The code was very clean and well-organized. The CSS file was very easy to understand as it was commented and divided into a few basic sections. Classes and IDs were named logically and easy to follow.

As is the situation any time you are working with someone else’s code, there were a few things that I would have done differently, but those were only issues of personal preference and a matter of my habits, not issues of bad code.

Communication

To get the process started with Markup4U, you first submit a form on their website and provide the PSD files to them either by upload or by providing a URL. I was pleased to get a response from Markup4U within about 30 minutes or less of submitting the form. That email presented a few questions to me on some details that I didn’t specify when I submitted the form. The communication was brief, but it covered everything necessary.

After I responded to this initial email I was given an estimated time of completion, which was later that day. I wound up getting the files back from Markup4U about an hour before the anticipated completion time, or about 5 or 6 hours after I submitted the design.

Following this there were a few emails back and forth due to a change that the client had requested (something that was not part of the original design) and Markup4U responded quickly and helped to get everything completed.

The only criticism I have with the communication from Markup4U is that I would prefer to have the name of the person I’m working with so I can address them in my emails. The messages that came simply said Markup4U Team at the end. Overall this is a very minor issue, and I know they have legitimate reasons for operating this way. All of their communication was prompt, professional and helpful.

Timeliness

If you compare PSD to HTML providers you’ll see that some of them promise very quick turnarounds, and others will charge higher rates if you need it done quickly. Markup4U offers a turnaround time of one business day, plus up to one business day for each additional page. As I mentioned earlier, the code was provided to me in less than a business day, which I was very happy with. Obviously, it takes time to code a site, and quality is more important than getting it back instantly. That being said, Markup4U provided a good balance of both quality and speed.

Overall Experience

Overall I was very pleased with the service I received from Markup4U. Although I have always been hesitant to use PSD to HTML services, this was a very good experience and I am sure I will do it again. It saved me a lot of time and allowed me to make better use of my day. I can certainly feel comfortable recommending Markup4U to other designers, and in fact I am sure I will personally use their services again.

For those of you wondering about the details of what Markup4U offers, the base price is $145 with a 50% discount for each additional page. They also offer coding for WordPress themes (you can contact them for a quote based on your needs).

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DevSnippets

My friend Noura Yehia of Noupe just launched DevSnippets, a code snippet gallery, a few days ago. It provides a great opportunity for designers and developers to share their work and for others to enhance their projects and learn something new. Also, there is a huge contest to celebrate the launch ($4,600 in prizes going to the top submitters).

Script and Style

A few weeks ago Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks and David Walsh launched an awesome news-related site, Script & Style. In my opinion it’s a fairly similar concept to CSS Globe (which I also love) in that users can submit links to be posted and there are also some original articles/tutorials. If you like to stay up-to-date with current topics in web design and development, check out Script & Style.

ThemeForest

It seems like every time I open up my feed reader Envato (formerly Eden) is launching a new site. Currently they’re in a Beta invitation only phase with ThemeForest (see the announcement at PSDTUTS). ThemeForest will be a theme marketplace where you can sell your own theme creations to make some extra money. If you’re interested in getting in early, Freelance Folder is giving away a bunch of beta invites.

Cymbolism

If you’re interested in learning more about the psychology of color or getting some ideas for your own color schemes, Cymbolism is a fun tool. It’s basically a word association game created by Mubashar Iqbal of Most Inspired (and many other sites). You’ll be given a word or phrase and then you click on the color that you associate with that word or phrase. You can also see the results for a lot of data captured by the site’s users.

Fresh Church Sites

I got an email last week from a reader that just launched Fresh Church Sites, a web design gallery focusing on church websites. The quality of church websites has really improved in the last year or two, so this site could be interesting to follow if it consistently adds new sites to the gallery. With so many design galleries out there, I like the idea of niche galleries.

Design Shard

If you’re looking for a new design blog to follow, Design Shard is not a bad choice. Some noteworthy posts include Create a Stunning Grunge Background (video tutorial) and Typographic + Design Inspiration from Music Magazine Ads.

DesignM.ag

Ok, this one is some shameless self promotion. A few weeks ago I announced the launch of DesignM.ag, and the first three weeks have seen some exciting growth. The site has a blog (some popular posts include 200+Resources for Freelance Designers and 9 Ways to Get Your Design Portfolio Seen), a community news section and a design gallery.

Any Others?

Are there other recent launches that you like?

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Recently there have been a growing number of individuals and companies that are specializing in providing reputation management services to clients to help them monitor and protect their good name. A few weeks ago Glen Allsopp of ViperChill released a 75 page eBook called Online Reputation Management: All You’ll Ever Need to Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation.

I’ve been familiar with Glen’s work through his blog where he covers search engine optimization, social media marketing, and of course reputation management. Glen has been working with some very large companies providing reputation management services, and this book is his way of sharing his knowledge with the rest of us.

Glen provided me with a copy of his book (thanks Glen!) and I’d like to share details of the book with you, because I know reputation management is only going to become even more of a necessity for those of us that do business online.

As I mentioned earlier, the eBook is 75 pages long and currently it’s selling for $19, although it will soon be increasing to $39 (you can purchase it through ViperChill.com). It’s broken down into 3 main sections: Monitoring, Repairing, and Managing. What I really like about Glen’s book is that it’s filled with real-world examples (and plenty of screen shots) that make his points very clear. It’s evident that Glen put a lot of thought into how this book could be laid out in order to be the most practical for the reader, and by breaking it down into these 3 sections I think the content is much easier to digest and comprehend.

I have to admit that before reading this book I’d only paid a small amount of attention to the topic of reputation management. I think for most of us it’s easy to overlook the need for reputation management until a problem arises and damage control sets in. The reality is, we all know that at any time someone could unfairly damage our reputation that we have spent a great deal of time and effort building.

I thought the best way to give you some information about the book and how it may be able to help you would be to do a short interview with Glen. So rather than getting too many of my words about the book and the subject at hand, let’s see what Glen has to say.

Many of our readers are individuals that work online or they are a part of a small business. It’s easy to see why huge, global companies need to invest time and effort into reputation management, but can you share some of your thoughts on reputation management and how it impacts the entrepreneur or small business owner?

Funnily enough that is a very common thought so I’m glad you’ve asked that question. Small bloggers can benefit greatly from knowing who is talking about them, some of the most beneficial in my opinion are:

- Know who is insulting them (if anyone) regarding the information they are putting out there

- Find out what content people are enjoying judging by who is actually linking too it

- Be in a good position to deal with any negativity that may arise as the brand grows.

Sadly, the bigger you get the more people will talk negatively about you, often from the jealousy of the success you are building. In terms of startups, it’s also important that they know what people think about their offering. It is very common for people to blog about them rather than go to the website itself and send them a message via the contact form.

What do you see in the future of the reputation management industry?

It is definitely growing. There’s been a bit of a bubble of blog posts around this topic recently, I’m proud that I started moving towards that niche a few months before this mini bubble happened as it is not something I “jumped on the band wagon”. Trends like this happen a lot, at the moment tons of people are writing about twitter, a few weeks before that there was a flood of information regarding facebook and so on.

Business owners are starting to understand why reputation management is becoming increasingly important. Largely due to the fact that big name brands have came under fire for not understanding the two-way conversation the web has become. I see the future for online reputation management as being a service that more and more online marketing companies begin to offer to their clients. After that, it will be about staying on top of the game in both seo, social media and communications.

One of the things I really appreciate about your book is that it’s very well laid out in a step-by-step fashion. There are plenty of books that you can read, feel like you understand the content, but you still have no idea how to go about putting that knowledge into practice in the real world. I think your book is a good starting point for a business owner that wants to be able to handle the tasks of reputation management himself/herself. With that being said, how much time would you say should be devoted to reputation management each week for the average small business?

For the average small business it isn’t something that takes up a huge amount of time, depending on the amount of discussions around the brand. As long as companies have managed to build up a nice ‘web profile’ of who they are and what they offer then after that, it is just monitoring what is said around the brand which can be a quick scan of a feed reader or other service for a few minutes every morning.

After reading through Online Reputation Management: All You’ll Ever Need to Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation, I can honestly say that it is a very well-written and informative book that you will definitely learn from. As I mentioned earlier, Glen’s approach with the book is very practical and he uses tons of real-world examples to clarify his points. If you run an business or work full-time online, I suggest you pick up a copy of the book for yourself. If you have already purchased the book I would love to read your feedback in the comments.

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