There are lots of people that visit inchoo.net who are not natural English speakers. This game will be awesome for you. You’ll start thinking about all sorts of different words and hopefully learn how to spell them correctly. But it is not all about learning, this game is fun! There are 3 different mods you can play with: Story Mode, Arcade Mode and Clear the Board.

Story Mode

An increasingly challenging game with 15 levels and a different target for each level. Reach the target score or compose the number of words required to complete the level before the time runs out! Conquer all 5 Letter Block Worlds by completing the 15 levels in one game. Don’t let the board fill in or you’ll loose the game!

Arcade Mode

Freestyle in a random world. The higher you score, the faster blocks will fall on the board. How long will you last? Challenge the your friends to beat your high score through the Open Feint gaming network!

Clear the Board

Look! A board full of blocks! Can you clean it up without shaking the device to get more blocks? Achieve that to enter the global high scores for this game mode!

Warning: Magento is NOT a word. xD

You can buy the app here.

First of all, you need to understand that the term sitemap usually refers to two very different things:

1. XML Sitemap
2. HTML Sitemap

In their essence, they are basically the same thing. They contain the same data structured for different purposes. XML Sitemap is the one you submit to Google through the Google Webmaster Tools. HTML sitemap is supposed to be used by actual users, not just bots.

Now that we got this covered, I can tell you that submitting an XML sitemap to Google is almost completely useless. Why? Because, if you need to tell Google where your pages are in order for Google to index them, then you did something terribly wrong with your internal linking structure and it’s most certainly not the best user experience.

If Google’s bot can’t find your content, how do you think a user will? Google is not stupid. Their engineers are very smart people that spend the vast majority of their time trying to improve the search results. If a certain URL couldn’t be indexed when the bot tried to index your website because it didn’t find an internal link it could follow to that URL, what do you thing Google will think about that URL now that they have it in your XML Sitemap? Do you think they would assign any ranking value to something even the site owner obviously thinks is so unimportant that you can’t find an internal link to it?

Here is a small Q&A about XML Sitemaps:

Q: Does submitting an XML sitemap makes Google index my website?
A: It might, but it doesn’t guarantee you that it will be indexed; Google’s words, not mine.

Q: Should I submit an XML sitemap to Google?
A: You can if you want, but if some pages of your website are only indexed because of the sitemap, your site has serious problems. Basically, if you did your internal linking structure properly, there is no need to submit an XML sitemap to Google.

Q: I submitted a sitemap but Google still doesn’t want to index majority of my URLs, why?
A: Because, XML sitemap has nothing to do with the number of pages Google can index on a certain website. The number of pages that can be indexed is largely determined by your PageRank, which is largely determined by the number and strength of your backlinks. So if you want your website to be indexed and have a proper internal linking structure, getting relevant, quality backlinks is a much better and useful approach that actually solves your problem.

Q: Will submitting an XML sitemap improve my search result ranking positions?
A: No. Sitemap is not a ranking factor.

Anyway, as I already knew the principals of MVC (Model – View – Controller) architecture, and had fairly good knowledge of object orientated PHP, all I needed was the basic file/folder structure for my custom module.

Just a small notice before I start: there are numerous tutorials / blog posts that explain the contents of those files, and therefore I won’t go into that.

So, without any complications, I give you just that :

\app\code\local\MyNamespace

//If you're new to OOP, take a look here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.namespaces.rationale.php

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname

//Name of new custom module - try to keep at least first letter capital, or there WILL BE truble with Magento's understanding

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname\Block

//In classic MVC architecture, this represents View part of MVC

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname\controllers

//This is fairly easy to understand, if not, have fun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93View%E2%80%93Controller

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname \etc

//Contains the most significant part in Magento's MVC architecture - the xml field that will connect all things together

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname\Helper

//Intended for files that contain repeatable routines or simple procedural methods

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname\Model

//Same thing as for controller, take a look at the link above

\app\code\local\MyNamespace\Appname\sql

//This was interesting thing to find out what's it for, it's to define custom database tables and process any upgrades to your extension.

\etc\modules

//Contains all Modules included in Magento - here's where it all really begins for our module

And I just wanted to give you an idea of how things get connected here.

1. Magento takes all xml files from “etc/modules/” to know which modules are there, and where are they located
2. By that location (specified in xml file at “etc/modules/”) Magento includes xml file from “/app/code/local/MyNamespace/Appname/etc” so that it can connect all other things together
3. The IndexController.php is the next one that’s included, and from there, it’s basic MVC (with slight variations)

I will provide 2 great tutorials that helped me a lot: ActiveCodeline tutorial and Magento Commerce tutorial

Well, I really hope this will help someone, because I know it would help me if I found it…

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just check this post.

OK, now lets continue with e-commerce part of the post. Here you can find some tips and tricks for increasing e-commerce conversion rates

1. Customer’s Safety – let them feel safe!

Invest your time and energy in giving customers signs of protection and safety. Try to use secured socket layer (SSL) encryption or some other specialized services to reassure users of the security of their information. Also, if you use this technologies, make sure that the customers know about it by displaying the logo of the services you use.

2. Specify what you are selling – be simple and clear!

Simple but very important thing is to introduce visitors about what you are selling because visitors are more likely to leave if they can’t understand what your site is all about and what you are selling. Your focus should be apparent in the pictures on your homepage, page titles and tagline, and also in the text on your homepage.

3. State your privacy policy – build trust!

A privacy policy is one of the most important documents on any website. It details your company’s views and procedures on the information collected from visitors. So, one of the essential components of building trust online is treading carefully when it comes to privacy.

Customers are more likely to give their information if they know how the information is going to be used. Reassure them that their privacy is important to you and specify whether you are planning to share or not to share their information with other marketers.

4. Do a spelling check on your site – be a professional!

Making sure that your site has no spelling errors is an important credibility indicator that can give your visitors confidence in your web site. Spelling and grammatical mistakes give the impression of the site as unpolished and unprofessional. Always review your copy for any mistakes, or hire a professional to improve and edit your copy.

5. Buttons and styling – pay attention to details!

The key is to make the buying process as simple and as easy as possible – and ease of use on the Web always translates to dollar. Make your call to buy signals consistent and prominent. Your “buy now” buttons should be prominently placed in your product pages.

Many e-tailers say that bigger “buy buttons” in bold and in a color that stands out can help increase conversion rates. Buy buttons should be placed above the fold to keep it prominent and in view of the customer. Avoid making the user scroll to find your buy buttons.

6. Get a toll free 1-800 number – show that you care!

Really nice to have. For many callers, it will mean that your company is legitimate given the fact that they know they can easily reach the company when they need to talk to a human. Plus, given that the call is free to the customers, they won’t hesitate to call you to inquire about your products and services.

In some cases 1-800 numbers have increased sales by more than 30 percent.

7. Enable Live chat – enhance interaction!

Explore the possibility of using live person chat on your site. Live chat can give you the opportunity to engage a customer during the sales process, whether the customer has questions about your products or they need to be clarified with the ordering process. It is a tool that can allow customers to get to know your business and talk with a real live person in your business and feel that you are responsive to their needs.

Customers are more likely to pull out their credit cards and spend on websites that they know they can easily talk to.

8. Make a sales funnel analysis – study hard!

In order to increase conversion it is first important to know what your clients are doing before you try to influence them into purchases. Sales funnel analysis is important in understanding how you are leading your visitors through your buying process ending in sales. You have to know what visitors do upon landing in your site, looking over your product categories, selecting the products that interest them, putting those products in the shopping cart and eventually completing the purchase by hitting the Place the Order Now button and paying.

The goal is to keep the visitors in your site – and making sure these visitors do what you want them to do – to buy. Also you may find that while visitors are looking at your product categories, they are not putting anything in their shopping carts – is it because you don’t have the products they thought you would have or is it because your pictures are too small or too hazy to help convince visitors that you have great quality products.

9. Use an Upsell Page – show them more!

Upselling is a marketing method used to persuade your customers to spend more money than they had originally intended. It is usually a page added between your normal ordering page and your payment page.

So, instead of chasing new customers, you can always generate extra income from upselling your products. It’s a fact that 30 percent to 67 percent of all people can be up sold at the time of purchase. Make a list of all the different strategies you can use to upsell your clients, then put them into action.

10. Invest in photography – give them a better picture!

People often underestimate the importance of quality photography in their website. Whether you are running a business or just selling your house Photography can be a powerful selling tool, the saying that a picture speaks a thousand words is very true. With the advent of digital cameras people are often taking photography into their own hands. The result of this can often have a negative effect.

So, take care that the pictures of your products should be clear, enough big and devoid of any distracting backgrounds. Your shots should be technically excellent, no blurred or out-of-focus shots.

As any good IDE, it should contain at least the following features:
* Code highlight
* Code completion
* FTP support
* SVN support
* Some sort of “quick view” that will list all classes, methods, constants(,…) in a file

And as a commonly needed bonus:
* JavaScript support with at least code highlight and code completion

Personally, on Linux platform I used Eclipse for PHP, as primary IDE. It has almost everything you can imagine and could look for in IDE. If maybe something isn’t included in package, it can be downloaded / installed through included feature “Install new software”. To make a long story short – anything you wish you can find in software that has been developing for more than 6 years now (I really couldn’t find the exact date), and that overcomed all the “child diseases”.

On the other hand there’s new player in IDE world on Linux, it’s the PhpStorm (currently in version 1.0). I’ve been using it for a week now, and as somewhat experienced user, I find it much better than Eclipse. It’s just amasing how responsive it is. On all includes, no matter how deep, auto completion works flawlessly. And not only that – it has the best Javascript IDE I have ever seen already included. Work with huge amount of files (10000+) is quite pleasant as nobody would expect. It has only one flaw – it’s not free, it costs $149 for corporate license and $49, but in my opinion, it worths more than that.

Aptana Studio is the third tool that I’d like to mention, although I haven’t used it, I hear its great.

I didn’t go into depths of how and why, but I thought I’d rather give my view on the matter.

If anyone have an opinion, feel free to leave a comment.

Now it is possible for many results from the same domain to appear. Exact number is not very clear, but in the blog post at Google’s official blog, they give us an example where only the last few results are a different domain.

What does this mean for the end user?

It means that when you search for something specific, you might get much more results from the most relevant website in the field and you’ll have to go to page two to see some other websites relevant for this search term.

Also note that this might prevent the situation like ReadWriteWeb famous “Facebook Login” debacle. If you’re not up to reading that article, I’m gonna tell you what happened in short: ReadWriteWeb published an article called Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login and outranked Facebook for the keywords “facebook login”, which resulted in 2 500+ comments from confused users that go to Facebook by googling “Facebok Login”. Users thought they were on Facebook and that Facebook got redesigned. There were some hilarious comments like “I figured it out! Facebook doesn’t work on Google anymore. You have to go to Bing.com and write “Facebook Login” over there!” followed by “Thanks, it works!”.

What does this mean for the website owner?

If you’ve been building your SEO strategy on ranking number two for the names of your competitors, well, that was a waste of your time and money.

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for future updates!

A little bit of OK Auto: Today, over 30 years later, OK Auto can be your main source for all of your automotive and off-road needs. With 22 employees who have worked here an average of 13 years, they have cumulative 267 years worth of industry experience! You can find them at the lovely place called Stewartsville in New Jersey, USA.

With standard features of an online store that fit into Magentos’ in-the-box feature list, they wanted News Article Manager, Image Gallery, Event Calendar, Shop by Vehicle Fit extension, and many more. After some consideration whether it is better to have everything in Magento or go worth WordPress integration, we decided to take the second route. Magento is getting better CMS features with every version, but it is still long way from WordPress. Check the website out at: http://ok4wd.com/

Let me be blunt: Magento development isn’t for the faint of heart. Magento development is extremely involved as its file structure and the way it functions is complex. Not to mention its extremely picky about the way things must be done. It’s very easy to be over your head in problems and confusion. The guys at Surgeworks/Inchoo not only knew what they were doing, but also helped keep the project moving when we dragged our feet. Everyone was professional, knowledgeable, and took great care in not only the website, but also our company as a whole. When we had crazy idea’s, they let us know if it were possible or if were about to build a sand castle in quick sand.

I cannot explain how grateful I am that we had such a group of knowledgeable developers working on our website. Over the past two years (I said we dragged our feet!), it seems like I can now fly out to Croatia, call my friends at Inchoo and grab a bite to eat. They are just that great as developers and as people. To be honest, I couldn’t see anyone else doing what they did. Looking back, we had some crazy request and features we wanted. They went beyond the call of duty as developers and as long as I’m in charge, no matter the company I work for at the time – these guys will be the first that I email.
James Henry, Website Project Leader, OK Auto

Its all about simple things, right? Well, here is one bottom line simple thing I would like to do with my Magento API. I would like to get a list of all available websites, stores and store views. Can I do that with the latest (as of this writing, 1.4.1.1) Magento? No I cannot! Can I get a list of … etc. For any serious scenario you will most likely be out of luck. What’s interesting is that rarely even a combination of several method calls will give you what you might need. Trust me on this one, I am writing Android application for Magento and its killing me.

So, how do we improve Magento API? That’s easy, I say lets override it enabling the further use all existing method calls while adding new methods to the same classes plus we can throw in some new classes to the API.

We will do so in the form of new extension, lets say that the extension name is “Ajzele_Mapy”.

First we will place the Ajzele_Mapy.xml file under the app/etc/modules/Ajzele_Mapy.xml with the content like shown below.

< ?xml version="1.0"?>

<config>
<modules>
<ajzele_mapy>
<active>false</active>
<codepool>community</codepool>
<depends>
<mage_api />
</depends>
</ajzele_mapy>
</modules>
</config>

Then we need to create appropriate file/directory structure inside the app/code/community/Ajzele/ folder.

First lets create the app/code/community/Ajzele/Mapy/etc/config.xml file with the content like shown below.

< ?xml version="1.0"?>

<config>
<modules>
<ajzele_mapy>
<version>1.0.0.0.0</version>
</ajzele_mapy>
</modules>
<global>
<models>
<customer>
<rewrite>
<customer_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Customer_Customer_Api
</customer_api>
<group_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Customer_Group_Api</group_api>
<address_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Customer_Address_Api</address_api>
</rewrite>
</customer>
<directory>
<rewrite>
<country_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api</country_api>
<region_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Region_Api</region_api>
</rewrite>
</directory>
<catalog>
<rewrite>
<category_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Category_Api</category_api>
<product_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Api</product_api>
<product_attribute_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Api
</product_attribute_api>
<product_attribute_media_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Media_Api
</product_attribute_media_api>
<product_attribute_set_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Set_Api
</product_attribute_set_api>
<product_attribute_tierprice_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Tierprice_Api
</product_attribute_tierprice_api>
<product_link_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Link_Api
</product_link_api>
<product_type_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Catalog_Product_Type_Api
</product_type_api>
</rewrite>
</catalog>
<cataloginventory>
<rewrite>
<stock_item_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_CatalogInventory_Stock_Item_Api
</stock_item_api>
</rewrite>
</cataloginventory>
<directory>
<rewrite>
<country_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api</country_api>
<region_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Region_Api</region_api>
</rewrite>
</directory>
<sales>
<rewrite>
<order_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Sales_Order_Api</order_api>
<order_invoice_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Sales_Order_Invoice_Api
</order_invoice_api>
<order_shipment_api>Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Sales_Order_Shipment_Api
</order_shipment_api>
</rewrite>
</sales>
</models>
</global>
</config>

In the above app/code/community/Ajzele/Mapy/etc/config.xml file you will notice I overridden all (if I did not miss any) of the exposed Magento API classes. For example, definition Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api tells the Magento to use Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api each time it wishes to use the Mage_Directory_Model_Country_Api class which is exposed to the API.

My appropriate Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api class would then have a content like shown below.

< ?php

class Ajzele_Mapy_Model_Directory_Country_Api extends Mage_Directory_Model_Country_Api
{

}

This example merely overrides the Mage_Directory_Model_Country_Api class, not doing anything more at the moment. Now if I would like to add new public method (one that does not exist in the Mage_Directory_Model_Country_Api), then I would (with one extra configuration entry shown below) call that method trough API like “directory_country.myNewMethod”.

In order to do so, I would need to add one more config info to another file called app/code/community/Ajzele/Mapy/etc/api.xml.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<config>
<api>
<resources>
<customer translate="title" module="customer">
<model>customer/customer_api</model>
<title>Customer Api</title>
<acl>customer</acl>
<methods>
<!-- Mapy methods here... -->
</methods>
</customer>
<customer_group>
<model>customer/group_api</model>
<title>Customer's Groups Api</title>
<acl>customer</acl>
<methods>
<!-- Mapy methods here... -->
</methods>
</customer_group>
<customer_address>
<model>customer/address_api</model>
<title>Customer Address Api</title>
<acl>customer/address</acl>
<methods>
<!-- Mapy methods here... -->
</methods>
</customer_address>
<directory_country translate="title" module="directory">
<model>directory/country_api</model>
<title>Country Api</title>
<acl>directory/country</acl>
<methods>
<!-- Mapy methods here... -->
</methods>
</directory_country>
<directory_region translate="title" module="directory">
<model>directory/region_api</model>
<title>Region Api</title>
<acl>directory/region</acl>
<methods>
<!-- Mapy methods here... -->
</methods>
</directory_region>
<catalog_category translate="title" module="catalog">
<model>catalog/category_api</model>
<title>Category API</title>
<acl>catalog/category</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_category>

<catalog_category_attribute translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Category attributes API</title>
<model>catalog/category_attribute_api</model>
<acl>catalog/category</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_category_attribute>

<catalog_product translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product API</title>
<model>catalog/product_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product>

<catalog_product_attribute translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product attributes API</title>
<model>catalog/product_attribute_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_attribute>

<catalog_product_attribute_set translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product attribute sets API</title>
<model>catalog/product_attribute_set_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_attribute_set>

<catalog_product_type translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product types API</title>
<model>catalog/product_type_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_type>

<catalog_product_attribute_media translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product Images API</title>
<model>catalog/product_attribute_media_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product/media</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_attribute_media>

<catalog_product_attribute_tier_price translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product Tier Price API</title>
<model>catalog/product_attribute_tierprice_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_attribute_tier_price>

<catalog_product_link translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Product links API (related, cross sells, up sells)</title>
<model>catalog/product_link_api</model>
<acl>catalog/product/link</acl>
<methods></methods>
</catalog_product_link>
</resources>
<acl>
<resources>
<customer translate="title" module="customer">
<title>Customers</title>
<sort_order>3</sort_order>

<!-- Mapy method acl's here... -->
</customer>
<directory translate="title" module="directory">
<title>Directory</title>
<sort_order>5</sort_order>

<!-- Mapy method acl's here... -->
</directory>
<catalog translate="title" module="catalog">
<title>Catalog</title>
<sort_order>1</sort_order>
</catalog>
</resources>
</acl>
</api>
</config>

Careful study of the above file shows how Magento exposes its class and methods to the API. For example, is you open the app\code\core\Mage\Directory\etc\api.xml file you will see how it exposes methods for the Directory module.

So, in short, my module merely overrides all the available/exposed API classes enabling you to add new methods or overwrite existing ones in the API. Entire code provided above does not contain any custom methods or does it overwrite any. Its merely an “empty” and “ready” project for writing your own stuff.

I have taken this “extending the Magento API” concept very serious as I will most likely need it for my future Android – Magento apps. With that in mind I have created a repository on the http://github.com/ajzele/mapy (which is empty for now, planning on submitting my first code in a week or so). As you guessed it, the project name is Mapy, short from Magento + API + y to spice up the things .

Hope this article was helpful for you.

Cheers.

This Facebook GUI kit is fully layered. It was built with vectors and blending options, so that scaling and editing the objects will go smoothly for the designer. You can download it from Surgeworks website from this link:

http://surgeworks.com/blog/design/facebook-gui-free-psd-resource

Recently, PostRank launched their PostRank Connect service, which came with a free PostRank Analytics account. I’ve been looking into PostRank Analytics for some time now so I grabbed the opportunity to have a free account at my disposal. Needless to say, this made my day.

What is PostRank Analytics?

PostRank Analytics is a service that tracks user engagement with your website, both on and off site. This includes all sorts of social networks, bookmarking and sharing websites, comments and responses.

Why do I need to use it?

I might sound lame with this one, but, web has seriously evolved in the past few years. Most of the stuff that goes on around your website is no longer located on your website. It has become extremely hard to keep track of everything that’s happening everywhere on the web. PostRank Analytics makes it easy for you. Now that I tested it, I can say without doubt that this Analytics service is a must have for web content publishers, and likely for other kinds of websites as well.

Google Analytics just isn’t able to track everything anymore. It doesn’t give me any data on some really important stats which I, as an internet marketer, simply have to track.

PostRank Analytics key features:

Track up to 5 websites on a single account. No installation required, just add URL, verify and you’re on!

Extremely clear overview of social engagement with graphs showing you date, amount of engagement, and RSS items that were created on that day. Even more in depth reports can be viewed on daily or per RSS item bases.

You can even set-up custom pages that are not part of your RSS feed to be tracked, such as landing pages or static content by simply adding an URL.

PostRank Analytics shows you the list of people that are sharing your content the most for every social network individually in the last three months. You can easily see which users are bringing you the most benefit. It also has awesome demographic stats of these social networks displayed right above this data.

Give it a try, I find this service extremely useful. It’s not a usual over-hyped social media tool. This is the true Analytics of today. If used together with Google Analytics, this is the real deal.

We now know that this campaign indeed was a complete marketing success, earning OldSpice an impressive 107% increase in sales (which when we’re talking about a brand of this size is truly remarkable number). But what leasons can we take home from their success?

Well, first of all let’s examine the transcript of the commercial:

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Hello, ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse.

Already at the 2nd word, even the experienced marketers could say they did a terrible mistake speaking to the wrong audience. We now know this wasn’t true. It obviously captures guy’s attention and boosts their egos, making them wish they were him. The sentence continues and slowly but effectively prepares us for the humor.

The text continues with first hilarious and memorable quote “Sadly, he isn’t me”. A marketer could say they just offended their targeted audience, but reality is, the male audience sees themselves in this guy, regardless of their physical appearance. They continue with the first mention of their product. Please note they did not say anything good about their product. They didn’t really “advertise” the product. They just throw it in there, like it’s completely natural part of the “spoof”.

They continue with repeating the theme from the start of the commercial, followed by introduction of parody of female romance stereotypes. The parody continues through the commercial until we hit the final memorable quote – “I’m on a horse”.

The punchline is something that appealed extremely well to the internet audience since it gives the commercial a very strong factor of randomness, while staying on topic of parody. If you look at the modern internet memes, you will see that randomness is extremely well performing “form of humor” on the web.

So what did we learn?

• Don’t take your business too seriously. Humor sells… It sells really well!
• Random humor is good for internet audience.
• Personal video responses are well accepted.
• You can advertise your product without actually saying anything good about it.

To pull this out, you would overide some grid,  add column  to it and write custom renderer.

How it works in real life situations.?!
Let’s take a look at product listing admin grid.
Overide block class called Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Grid located in /app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Catalog/Product/Grid.php file.

We won’t rewrite this block in this post, but this post assumes you know how to do it yourself.
Modify _prepareCollection() method with new data, for example let’s add short description of a product:

protected function _prepareCollection()
{
$store = $this->_getStore();
$collection = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection()
->addAttributeToSelect('sku')
->addAttributeToSelect('name')
->addAttributeToSelect('short_description') // THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE ADDED
->addAttributeToSelect('attribute_set_id')
->addAttributeToSelect('type_id')
->joinField('qty',
'cataloginventory/stock_item',
'qty',
'product_id=entity_id',
'{{table}}.stock_id=1',
'left');

if ($store->getId()) {
//$collection->setStoreId($store->getId());
$collection->addStoreFilter($store);
$collection->joinAttribute('custom_name', 'catalog_product/name', 'entity_id', null, 'inner', $store->getId());
$collection->joinAttribute('status', 'catalog_product/status', 'entity_id', null, 'inner', $store->getId());
$collection->joinAttribute('visibility', 'catalog_product/visibility', 'entity_id', null, 'inner', $store->getId());
$collection->joinAttribute('price', 'catalog_product/price', 'entity_id', null, 'left', $store->getId());
}
else {
$collection->addAttributeToSelect('price');
$collection->addAttributeToSelect('status');
$collection->addAttributeToSelect('visibility');
}

$this->setCollection($collection);

parent::_prepareCollection();
$this->getCollection()->addWebsiteNamesToResult();
return $this;
}

Now let’s add this to a new column:

/*You will find some more code inside this method, but for readability purposes, I'll just say you need to add code you find here at beginning of this method...*/

protected function _prepareColumns()
{
$this->addColumn('Short description',
array(
'header'=> Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Short description'),
'index' => 'short_description',
'renderer'  => 'Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Renderer_Red',// THIS IS WHAT THIS POST IS ALL ABOUT
));

}

Make directory called Renderer inside directory where your Grid.php is located and make file Red.php

Make class

Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Renderer_Red extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid_Column_Renderer_Abstract

Notice “Mage_”, this is because I’m not rewriting anything in this post…

Here is code:

< ?php
class Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Renderer_Red extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid_Column_Renderer_Abstract
{

public function render(Varien_Object $row)
{
$value =  $row->getData($this->getColumn()->getIndex());
return '<span style="color:red;">'.$value.'</span>';

}

}
?>

Now you should have one additional column at product grid containing short description writen in red.

Here is the sample line code you just need to place above final $order->save() or possibly $checkout->saveOrder():

Mage::app()->getStore()->setConfig(Mage_Sales_Model_Order::XML_PATH_EMAIL_ENABLED, "0");

These 10 extensions for magento are here for their value and usefulness. Also, almost all of them exist for quite some time so they have been tested and more importantly supported by their authors with the exception of the Easy Lightbox but it works with Magento 1.4.

One of them is our own product by Domagoj Potkoc.

• 1. Direct ResizeGive the possibility to resize images without distorting them. You can specify a Width and a Height value as well as a ratio. Everyone dealing with images in Magento will appreciate this one for sure.http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/153/direct-resize
• 2. Magento Easy lightboxThis small extension will help to install Lightbox widget. Installation and configuration will take approximately 5 minutes.http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/1487/magento-easy-lightbox
• 3. Exploded MenuReplaces the standard single column drop down with a multi-column dropdown featuring 2nd and 3rd level menu items.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/Raptor+Commerce+%28toby%29/extension/1345/raptor_explodedmenu
• 4. Magento Easy TabsThis small extension will help to add informational tabs on product page. No files are replaced and no codding experience needed to install.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/TemplatesMaster/extension/1725/magento-easytabs
• 5. Canonical URLThis extension adds the new canonical links to the head of your Magento pages.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/Yoast/extension/906/canonical-url-s-for-magento
• 6. Fooman Google Analytics PlusAdditional features for the default GoogleAnalytics module. Track every individual page – including sections retrieved via AJAX during one-page-checkout
  Enter DomainName to track via the Magento back-end / check here if you should use it. Track the actual typed in keywords for adwords instead of only the term you bid on (this might not yet work due to a bug in Magento itself). Optionally track Adwords conversions for purchases

  http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/FOOMAN/extension/171/fooman-google-analytics-plus

• 7. Delete ordersAllows you to delete testing orders from the drop-down menu in the Admin panel.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/Boutik+Circus/extension/873/delete-orders
• 8. uGiftCertAllow your customers to purchase and use Gift Certificates. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/Unirgy/extension/751/unirgy_giftcert
• 9.Featured productsThis extension gives your Magento ability for easy management of featured products. Frontend features include separate interface for listing of all featured products and a block usage for easy placement to the interfaces of your choice.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/Inchoo/extension/2513/featured-products
• 10. Enhanced Admin Products GridAdds some exciting customizable features to the products grid like: Full Product Search, Grid Row Highlighter,Catalog Grid Thumbnails/Images,Mass Product Refresh etc.http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/WDCA/extension/748/enhanced-product-grid

After two years of dedicating ourselves to a great ecommerce platform that is Magento, it was about time we formalized the relationship.

For those of you who have been following us, this shouldn’t come as a surprise – we’ve passionately worked with all the strengths and weaknesses of Magento from its very beginning, contributing to the community of developers and Magento itself by often sharing some tips and tricks, code snippets and free extensions adding some features to the Community Edition.

When Magento launched the Professional Edition in May, we saw it as a great opportunity to expand our services to small business owners looking for a bespoke ecommerce solution.

The Professional Edition comes with some new features that are not included out of the box with the Community Edition:

• Gift Certificates/Cards (both virtual and physical)
• Reward Points System
• Customer Store Credits
• Strong Data Encryption

You can check the Professional Edition demo store here or go behind the scenes in the admin section.

We look forward to embarking on new adventures with Magento.

I hope that you know how to create magento module and I will skip this step.
First of all, you have to create in etc folder config.xml file with next content:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<config>
<modules>
<inchoo_mycheckout>
<version>1.0.0</version>
</inchoo_mycheckout>
</modules>

<global>
<models>
<mycheckout>
<class>Inchoo_Mycheckout_Model</class>
</mycheckout>
</models>
<helpers>
<mycheckout>
<class>Inchoo_Mycheckout_Helper</class>
</mycheckout>

</helpers>
<blocks>
<mycheckout>
<class>Inchoo_Mycheckout_Block</class>
</mycheckout>
</blocks>
</global>

<default>
<payment>
<mycheckout>
<model>mycheckout/standard</model>// very important thing, here you select the model for your payment method
<active>1</active>
<order_status>pending</order_status>
<title>CUSTOM CARD</title>
<payment_action>sale</payment_action>
<submit_url>https://someurl.com</submit_url>
<merchant_id>Insert merchant id</merchant_id>
<allowspecific>0</allowspecific>
<sort_order>1</sort_order>
</mycheckout>
</payment>
</default>

<frontend>
<routers>
<mycheckout>
<use>standard</use>
<args>
<module>Inchoo_Mycheckout</module>
<frontname>customcard</frontname>
</args>
</mycheckout>
</routers>
</frontend>
</config>

Next step: you have to create system.xml file also in etc folder with next content:

< ?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<sections>
<payment>
<groups>
<mycheckout translate="label comment" module="paypal">
<label>Custom CARD MyCheckOut</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<sort_order>0</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
<fields>
<active translate="label">
<label>Enabled</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_yesno</source_model>
<sort_order>10</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
</active>
<title translate="label">
<label>Title</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<sort_order>20</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>1</show_in_store>

</title>
<order_status translate="label">
<label>New Order Status</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_order_status</source_model>
<sort_order>50</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
</order_status>
<submit_url>
<label>Gateway URL</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<sort_order>58</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
</submit_url>
<merchant_id>
<label>Merchant ID</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
<sort_order>59</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
</merchant_id>
<allowspecific translate="label">
<label>Payment Applicable From</label>
<frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
<sort_order>60</sort_order>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_payment_allspecificcountries</source_model>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
</allowspecific>
<specificcountry translate="label">
<label>Countries Payment Applicable From</label>
<frontend_type>multiselect</frontend_type>
<sort_order>70</sort_order>
<source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_country</source_model>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>
<depends><allowspecific>1</allowspecific></depends>
</specificcountry>
<sort_order translate="label">
<label>Sort Order</label>
<frontend_type>text</frontend_type>
</sort_order><sort_order>100</sort_order>
<show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
<show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
<show_in_store>0</show_in_store>

</fields>
</mycheckout>
</groups>
</payment>

</sections>
</config>

In this system.xml file we create options for this payment method. These options you will see in admin section under payment method, also if you need additional options you can add them.

Last step: is creating model in folder model with file-name standard.php. This model is defined in config.xml file. Here is example:

< ?php

class Inchoo_Mycheckout_Model_Standard extends Mage_Payment_Model_Method_Abstract
{

protected $_code = 'mycheckout';

protected $_isInitializeNeeded      = true;
protected $_canUseInternal          = false;
protected $_canUseForMultishipping  = false;

/**
* Return Order place redirect url
*
* @return string
*/
public function getOrderPlaceRedirectUrl()
{
//when you click on place order you will be redirected on this url, if you don't want this action remove this method
return Mage::getUrl('customcard/standard/redirect', array('_secure' => true));
}

}

If your method redirect when customer click on checkout button place order you have to create (customcard/standard/redirect) standard controller with method redirectAction and etc. This page will create html form which will send POST data to payment gateway. All data which you need for creating this form you can get from Magento model $session = Mage::getSingleton(‘checkout/session’); and etc.

When you finish everything you will get next option in admin section:

I hope that will be helpful

Just 5 years ago, there was no Twitter, Facebook had no users, basically, there was almost no social interaction going on between online stores and their customers. Things have rapidly changed since then, but many online stores did not. Many online stores you encounter are still stuck with the 5 year old (or even older) layout and features. Five years in web business is probably equivalent of 50 years in medicine for example.

There is something that old, but still extremely successful online stores (such as Amazon or eBay) have in common:

They never stop changing. They never stop testing. They always teach their store new tricks.

Online store nowadays can not be set to autopilot. Your customers expect a lot from you. They expect perfect usability, they expect awesome customer support, they expect your store to be the artificial intelligence that automatically knows what they wanna do next. If you don’t provide it to them, someone else will, and that competitor will take your clients away.

eBay 10 years ago and now (Click to enlarge)

How do you teach your online store new tricks?

There are several fields in which improvements are necessary for a 5 year old online store. I’d start with social media, being the most obvious one.

Online store going social:

I have a customer support number listed on my site, why do I need a stupid Twitter account?

Things have shifted 180 degrees in the past few years. Consumers no longer engage your brand where you want them to engage you. Instead, they hang out where they wanna hang out and expect you as a brand to be there. In this case, we’re talking about social networks, but you shouldn’t stop there. Consumers might be blogging and ranting about your brand or product on their personal websites, micro sites, blogs… and they expect your response. They expect you to listen to the noise of the world wide web and filter the data about your brand and respond to their needs no matter where they are.

Few years ago, “social media experts” were pointing out that this will be expected from the companies in the future. Well, that future came sooner than you thought because you’re living it right now.

New design and layout:

But I like my current design!

Your opinion about the design doesn’t matter. Designer’s opinion about the design doesn’t matter. Customers’ opinions matter. They bring in the money and your design and layout has to be tailored to fit their needs and preferences. It is highly likely that 5 year old (or older) design isn’t up to date with current web design trends and best practices.

Internet users change. They learn new tricks. They adopt themselves to the new usability standards as more and more websites start using them. What was considered usability best practice five years ago may not be such a bespoke solution nowadays.

Changes in the world of SEO:

When we made the site, an SEO consultant told us it was perfect.

It might have been. But SEO is one of the fastest changing industries on the web. Google introduces hundreds of changes to it’s ranking algorithm every year! Just as an example, several years ago, it might have sounded like a great idea to sculpt PageRank using no-follow, but nowadays it produces the completely opposite effect!

Long-tail shift:

We are ranking well for the most important keywords in our niche.

Yea, but did you compare the amount of traffic these keywords are sending you today to the same day 5 years ago? Even considering the fact that the number of internet users has grown a lot in this period you will have to notice that average internet users started to shift to the use of longer keywords. As average user of the internet is slowly becoming a power user, he learned how to use search engine much more effectively to find exactly what he wants. This led to growth of longer search queries.

If you want to take your share of search engine traffic, you will have to start creating content. Content marketing is already extremely ROI effective marketing method if used properly and will only grow in the future. Have a read on why do you actually need a blog on your e-commerce website.

“Smart” navigations, product recommendations, sharing features:

It is highly likely that your 5 year old e-commerce solution is missing some of the really smart features that new bespoke e-commerce solutions have. Have a look at some of the bespoke online stores nowadays. They know exactly what else you might wanna buy after you add a product to your shopping cart. They are using effective new ways of organizing and filtering products. They are using smarter site search engines. They are enabling their visitors to easily share their products with their friends on social networks of their choice.

If you didn’t teach your store any new tricks in 5 years and you’re thinking about doing it all now, it’s easy to get carried away, so please make sure you don’t “overdo it”.

Branko is the most experienced Magento developer on our team (the first one to join Tomislav after he founded Inchoo two years ago) and he has been involved in training and mentoring activities with most of the current team members. With Magento learning curve being somewhat steeper than with other platforms, he’s had his share of very interesting experiences while spreading his Magento skills and knowledge throughout the company.

When we were approached by Kara Heinrichs, GM for Education, training and certification at Magento, with the invitation to have a speaker at Magento Developers Paradise, Branko was the obvious choice. The fact the conference is taking place in Mallorca only helped him make the decision.

Magento Developers Paradise is an international conference for Magento developers that will be packed with keynotes, sessions, sneak peeks into the future development of the platform and, of course, fun in the sun.

Keynote speakers will include Yoav Kutner, CTO of Magento and John Lunn, Head Wizard of PayPal X. You can find out more about the confirmed speakers here.

Tomislav Bilic, our CEO, will also participate in the conference, so if you’re keen on finally meeting some Inchooers in person (and in Mallorca, for that matter), check out the conference schedule (still in the works) and register – we hope to see you there!