What are the Benefits of Email marketing?

Advice for Internet Marketers with Ethics

While most internet marketers have turned to social media to sell their products and services, developing a strong email campaign is still an essential component to the entire internet marketing field. In fact, some experts forecast that consumers will contribute about $67.8 billion into the U.S. market simply from making purchases through email marketing this [...]

I’ve been blogging daily for nearly 14 months now. 2 years ago, I hardly would have believed that possible. But with the right software, it hasn’t been all that difficult. However, I’ve just committed to a few major projects with a business partner that are going to consume as much time as I can give them [...]

The other day, Robin over at Profit Blog shared some good tips on how to ensure that your blog comments get approved (rather than getting junked because they look like spam): The reason so many marketers are unsuccessful with blog commenting is because they cannot understand what it means to add value. So below are a [...]

Before we get to internet marketing, let’s talk about the “Stupid Tax”. According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s: The cost associated with engaging in any state sanctioned form of long odds gambling, i.e. playing the lottery. Why “Stupid Tax”? As I wrote back in July: I once calculated that winning the lottery is about like picking the right [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

We finally got our pumpkins carved last night. The kids sketched out their designs and then drew them on the pumpkins for my wife and I to carve (they’re a little too young yet to do it themselves, but are old enough to enjoy seeing their designs finished.) For mine, I decided to try something a [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

I saw an interesting tweet the other day from Dr. Mani, but I’m going to give it to you one half at a time. Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I will not skip ahead and peek at the second half.” Okay, here’s the first half: Success Key: Leverage everything to your advantage… This is an [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Should you focus on one thing or diversify? No. You should do both. But in the right way. Today, Terry Dean posted a collection of 21 habits of successful entrepreneurs. Two that jumped out at me were: 3. Choose one market and focus on it. It’s tough for experienced marketers to manage several different markets at once. A beginner starting [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

I was going to say “introductory premium price”, but I think we’re a little muddy on the meaning of “premium”. When I hear “premium”, I think “better”. But in fact, premium means “a sum added to an ordinary price or charge.” It’s what you pay extra to get something better. Normally, we expect introductory prices to be [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

How do you get prospects to buy your products? Not by convincing them to want it, but by showing them that it’s what they already want. A few days ago, Bryan Eisenberg shared a list of 20 reasons why people buy. Here are a few (click the link to see the rest that he lists…and then [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

I was browsing the archives of Dr. Mani’s blog today and came across this article about pricing (discussing something he learned from Dan Kennedy): That lesson in pricing remained one of my most profitable in the 15 years I?ve been creating and selling infoproducts online. It distills down to this simple principle: “Price lesser than value — [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Internet Marketing Tools

Hi All, A quick update on our progress in restoring Market Samurai functionality and some answers to common questions. First up, a big thank you to all of you who’ve posted, emailed and tweeted various encouraging words (our users are awesome!). As mentioned in our previous post, we’re genuinely sorry for the outage. The good news is that [...]

If you’ve tried to launch and use Market Samurai in the last few days you’ll have noticed that there are large areas of functionality that are broken. What Happened? As you know, Market Samurai pulls data from dozens of different search data providers so that you have all the data you need in a single place to [...]

So you?ve found a great keyword ? It?s got good traffic levels, high commercial value and it?s extremely relevant to the product or service that you have for sale. Sounds like a winner right? Well ? maybe? You see the biggest mistake that new online business owners make is that they select keywords that are just too difficult [...]

In our last video, Dave Jenyns shared his “George Foreman Method” which is a proven 7 step process for building a team of ‘A Players’ that can help you to take your business to the next level. In the second video of this Outsourcing Series, Pete Williams is going to spill the beans on his incredible [...]

Following on from the great feedback we received from our recent Conversion series, today we want to kick off a new series targeted at another area in which a lot of online business owners have MAJOR problems, which is ‘Outsourcing’. You’ve probably already realized that with keyword research, content creation, article distribution, social media and all [...]

As we end our series on conversion, I want to reinforce that a low conversion rate will cripple everything else you do online. You can?t afford to bid in PPC, your efforts in SEO will yield small results and affiliates won?t promote you. In today?s increasingly competitive online space you need to focus attention on boosting [...]

Most folks know that inbound links to your website (when combined with on-site optimisation) are the key drivers of ranking, especially for high value keywords. Most of us also know that not all links are equal and that links from high authority sites carry a lot more power (or ?juice? as we like to call [...]

Get Your Free Checklist, plus, take our ?30 Minute Site Review Challenge? and win one of three website critiques by a Samurai staffer. Today we ?bring it home? on this whole topic of conversion. By now, I hope you?re totally convinced that testing is the easy path to increased profit, a better lifestyle and a real [...]

It’s with much disappointment and regret that we’ve decided to retire our plans to include an AdWords module in Market Samurai. Please believe us when we say that this hasn’t been an easy decision and it has not been made lightly. We realize that this decision will disappoint many of our users who have been waiting [...]

On Saturday the 2nd of July at 17:00, Australian Eastern Standard Time, our websites for Noble Samurai, Market Samurai and Domain Samurai will be brought down for approximately one hour in order for us to perform system maintenance. Alternate Timezones: PST – Midnight between 1st and 2nd of July EDT – 3am on the 2nd of [...]

Premium WordPress Themes

I am very pleased to announce that we have released the Simple Social Icons plugin for WordPress. Simple Social Icons is an easy to use, customizable way to display icons that link visitors to your various social profiles.

With it, you can easily choose which profiles to link to, customize the color and size of your icons, as well as align them to the left or right, all from the widget form (no settings page necessary!).

Many of our themes have used CSS and the Custom Menus function to accomplish this. You can still use this method, and if you do – here’s how you can pull it off.

But Now There’s an Easier Way to Add Social Media Icons

Thanks to the code craftsmanship of Nathan Rice, you can add these icons to your header right section, your sidebar or even your footer widgets with a few clicks.

Here’s a screenshot of the widget admin screen.

The great thing about this plugin is that it will work on any WordPress site – it’s not limited to the Genesis Framework.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the WordPress.org plugin repository and download it there.

Pin It

Late last summer WordPress conducted a survey asking users how they put WordPress to work.

Matt Mullenweg presented some of the findings at his WordCamp San Francisco keynote, with all of the raw data from the survey being made public shortly after.

Some interesting facts appeared in the data about WordPress users that identify themselves as developers. Indirectly, the numbers show how WordPress developers are driving the adoption of WordPress by the business community.

We’ve placed that data in the infographic below for you. Note that a higher resolution image is viewable by clicking the infographic itself …

We are very proud to announce the second Genesis Connect event, which will be held during SXSW on March 10th in Austin. Genesis Connect is an unofficial meetup open to anyone who uses or develops with the Genesis Framework.

If you are interested in learning more or want to meet others who make their living with it, here’s your chance. Join folks such as Bill Erickson, Brian Gardner, Jared Atchison, Josh Byers, Lauren Mancke, Nathan Rice, Nick Croft, Pat Ramsey, Rafal Tomal, Ron Rennick, Travis Smith and many others.

Click for more details on Genesis Connect.

The team here at StudioPress works hard to constantly create the very best premium WordPress child themes on the market.

However, we often pause to marvel at what others are accomplishing through their creative uses of the Genesis Framework for WordPress.

We take our hats off to some of our favorite designs currently out there on the web that utilize the power and flexibility of the Genesis Framework and our themes.

Here are six of those amazing sites, in no particular order …

Creativity Included

With a simple, colorful site design that truly pops, Creativity Included introduces an inventive set of products and services aimed squarely at making life easier for those who aspire to customize or design great child themes for the Genesis Framework.

Creativity Included makes good on their name and offers memorable graphics and easy to navigate categories that make learning design tips and tricks a snap for anyone interested in effectively harnessing the power of the web. They also sell their own StudioPress themes.

They don’t sugar coat their ebooks, video tutorials or content-loaded classroom experiences because they know that to get the most out of Genesis, some perspiration is required. They also understand that with Genesis there are “…no limitations but your imagination.” Go ahead, dream big.

Designed by: Chris Ford

Eat Life Whole

Eat Life Whole really takes the power of Genesis to new heights with their enlightened take on a nutrition and lifestyle website that offers “nutritious solutions for body, heart and mind”.

The clean, uncluttered look of the site offers a rich reader experience that utilizes the flexibility of Genesis by offering lots of content with image-rich design.

Multiple product and consulting offerings are easy to navigate and the blog is filled with an array of helpful categories for healthful living advice. With their utilization of savvy email signups and social media widgets Eat Life Whole has a spacious feel and overall enriching design, which matches their philosophy perfectly.

Designed by: Bill Erickson

Red to Gray Creative

Red to Gray Creative proves that a minimalist design with some innovative customization can do a lot more ? with less. Their site shows that the flexibility of the Genesis Framework can truly work with any unique website, especially those designed for expressing a strong point of view.

Every pertinent detail about their services and creative processes are reduced to simple, easy-on-the-eye graphics that show off their distinct style. And the clever placement of social media widgets blends seamlessly with the overall design.

Even though the team at Red to Gray Creative wear a lot of hats, the elegant and uncluttered look and feel of their site frame their services brilliantly. Kudos to them for showing us all how it’s done.

Designed by: Lauren Mancke

Seward Helicopter Tours

Choose your own an Alaskan adventure with the bright, refreshing website design of Seward Helicopter Tours. They use a portfolio-style homepage and photo slider to tell their breath-taking story.

By offering a content rich site that utilizes both photo and video galleries and multiple topics to highlight their helicopter and dog sled tour services, they present the great outdoors with adventurous and passionate design.

Genesis and Alaska have never looked more appealing together than with the website’s wide-open feel and airy color palette. The smart use of footer widgets, social media links and testimonials truly enhance the client and reader experience. “Book Your Adventure”!

Designed by: Sundog Media

Spyr Media

With a sleek, modern portfolio-style design, the designers at Spyr Media have taken Genesis a step beyond by keeping it simple, yet showcasing their talents with some great tongue-in-cheek humor. Their credo is “We don’t just do it. We live it.” And they have photos to prove it.

Not ones to take themselves too seriously, they have wisely placed an emphasis on building email opt-ins and word-of-mouth business for their inspired work. The image heavy site is simple, savvy, and easy to navigate with a layout that focuses on communication and contacts.

Less hype means more personality for these designers and it comes across with the use of footer widgets for encouraging direct conversation about Spyr’s services.

Designed by: Spyr Media

The TomKat Studio

The TomKat Studio offers up some eye-popping sweetness with their incredibly useable Tumblog style site, that offers decorating and party ideas with a host of related Etsy products and services you can use for any celebration.

The bright and crafty design of TomKat Studio enlists some innovative sidebar widgets that give readers and clients easy access to more of the wonderful confections this team of designers have to offer and recommend.

The site’s 10-post homepage harnesses the power of Genesis by encouraging easy exploration of a multitude of categories and opens up the discussion with a great comment functionality. And you can “Pin” all of your favorite ideas easily with the utilization of the Pinterest widget. Very smart.

Designed by: Lindsey Riel

What have you done with Genesis lately?

Have you done some great work with your Genesis website? Have seen some great Genesis-based sites out in the wild?

Let us know in the comments below, we’re always looking for ways our customers are taking WordPress further with Genesis.

And, pop over and say hi to the people above when you get a chance.

StudioPress is happy to announce the release of the Balance 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be downloaded by Pro Plus members in the support forum. All others can purchase the package here.

Mobile Responsive Design

The Balance theme is the third theme released here at StudioPress which has been developed to be mobile responsive in design. The first two themes built with mobile responsive design are Generate and eleven40.

Click here to see how the Balance theme looks across mobile devices.

Theme Features

The Balance theme includes the following features: 3 layout options, 5 theme colors (blue, green, pink, red and turquoise), custom background, featured images, footer widgets, landing page template, mobile responsive design, portfolio page template and threaded comments.

Take it for a test drive…

Screenshot of the Balance Theme

Responsive web design is all the rage.

Everywhere you look — including StudioPress.com — designers and developers are touting this site or that theme as responsive.

In fact we’ve got our own responsive design testing tool.

Big names like the Boston Globe and Sony have gotten on the responsive web design train, and every list of web trends have responsive design as the de facto standard trend for 2012.

But what makes good responsive design?

We’ve shown you how to create responsive design utilizing flexible grids and media queries, but beyond those what elements are required to really make a design stand out and be useful to your clients and readers?

I believe it all comes down to:

Changing your thinking Understanding how to organize your content

Let me explain…

A Change in Your Thinking

The web has moved beyond the desktop, and it’s not turning back.
-Ethan Marcotte, Responsive Web Design

The first element to excellent responsive design is to embrace it wholly and change your thinking.

While most people agree that responsive design is not magic fairy dust that will solve all of your multiple device usage problems, it is the best thing we have right now — and its only getting better.

In order for your designs to really reach their true potential you have to start thinking responsively from the outset. This requires — in my opinion — a need to change your workflow, and have a philosophy of designing for the mobile device first.

In his article Redefined, Trent Walton states:

To design responsive websites effectively and responsibly, I had to completely redefine the way I view the web.

The process of comping everything out in Photoshop first is quickly becoming more of a burden than benefit. In the past HTML and CSS were used to realize the vision that was produced in Photoshop. The problem is that this only works for one view — the desktop.

In reality we have a choice: either design multiple pixel perfect layouts in Photoshop or move the majority of design/layout to the browser and use Photoshop for the graphical elements.

It’s the idea that you are not building a web “page” anymore but rather a “network of content” that can be arranged and displayed to show it off in the best way possible, no matter where it is being viewed.

I truly believe that progressive enhancement is the key to building web sites today — not only for CSS, but for your content design and layout as well. We should start designing for the mobile device and its constraints, and then allow the site to grow.

In his book Mobile First, Luke Wroblewski, one of the foremost voices on mobile design today has this to say about the benefits of embracing a mobile first philosophy.

It not only prepares you for the explosive growth and new opportunities on the mobile internet, it forces you to focus and enables you to innovate in ways you previously couldn’t.

The mobile revolution is here and its not going anywhere. If we as designers don’t adapt and change our thinking, you’ll be easily replaced by those that do.

Organizing Your Content

The biggest benefit to responsive design is the ability to adjust the layout of your content — and in certain cases, the actual content itself — to fit your user in their environment.

It does your users a great disservice if all you do in your responsive design is move your sidebars under everything else. Creating excellent responsive design means you have to think through the context in which the user will be interacting with your content and adjust it to meet their needs.

For example, most people on mobile phones will not be surfing to your site randomly. Most likely, they followed a link to view a specific piece of content on your site.

At that point they have no interest in your navigation menu that takes up the entire screen, or your huge, full-width search box. And while it may not seem like a big deal, this is where responsive design really shines.

You have the opportunity to present to those users what they want in a way that is attractive and easy to read.

What follows are several case studies of sites that are organizing their content responsively while keeping user interaction as a primary focus.

Case Study – Sony USA

One of the biggest problems people are having a hard time solving with responsive design is what to do with the navigation menu. It’s obviously important, but as I pointed out earlier, on a mobile device it can get in the way of a fluid reading experience.

For sites with just a few navigational items it’s not as big of a deal because you can often place them on one line, where its not taking up too much screen real estate. But what if you have a large site with lots of sub-menus?

Most responsive sites have chosen one of two routes: they either hide the menu altogether with javascript and then allow it to appear on press, or they move it to the bottom of the content and have an anchor attached to it at the top.

The first option is definitely preferable. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve tapped a menu button to see what is offered only to be jumped to the bottom of the page. You then find yourself swiping your way back to the top of the page. That’s bad user interaction.

The Sony site has — in my opinion — the best responsive menu for a mobile device.

They’ve taken their menu and placed it in a single button next to the logo that expands on touch. The best thing about this menu is that it mimics a native app, and when you select a top level menu item with a sub-menu you’re taken directly to that sub-menu with a back button.

There are a number of advantages in executing the menu this way:

The content behind the menu remains, even if the reader decides to abandon the menu The user does not have to swipe around to see all the menu items The interaction process is one that is familiar from a native app

Case Study – CSS Tricks

The CSS Tricks site also has a very well thought out navigation menu that takes into account both the device and situation that the reader is in.

In widescreen, the navigation menu uses up a good amount of horizontal screen space. Since it has more space to use, it progressively enhances and includes a helpful description of what each link is about.

When the screen width goes under 960 pixels, the navigation does a very smart thing that a lot of sites get wrong — it doesn’t get smaller as the screen does, but splits itself onto two lines.

The font is the same size, the icons are same size, and everything is still very selectable by touch.

At 860 pixels and under the navigation still does not get smaller, but instead chooses to eliminate the icon and gets taller, which is also better for a touchscreen user.

600 pixels is the final break point for the navigation and now breaks itself into two columns.

Notice that the navigation items have only decreased in physical size sightly, and still give the reader a good experience to select.

One other bit that shows the designer was really thinking about the user is the view in portrait mode on an iPhone. The logo, nav menu and ad fill the screen exactly to the pixel.

You’ll also want to check out the “easter egg”, and watch the clever ad for Treehouse as you decrease your browser width.

Case Study – Smashing Magazine

One of the negative examples I mentioned earlier is that a lot of developers are making their sites responsive simply by shoving their sidebars under all their content.

Smashing Magazine does a good job in managing the content in the sidebars in a responsive way.

Their site employes a three-column layout with a navigational sidebar on the left and a sidebar on the right that houses ads, featured articles, and other content.

In the widescreen layout, they take advantage of modern wide browsers as the site expands to a maximum of 1800 pixels. This is a great use of screen space because as screens grow wider, their primary content — articles — gain the extra space.

At 1220 pixels the navigational sidebar re-locates above the main content.

This might be the only place where I disagree with their content placement decision. 1220 pixels is still fairly wide and I can see a user wanting to have content navigation available as opposed to ads. Obviously, the bills need to be paid and that needs to factor in, but from a consumer’s perspective I think it’s a mistake.

1010 is the next break point. Here the subnav menus come back and the ads disappear.

This is a calculated move to have the content fit beautifully on a tablet device. Knowing that most consumers that fit in this screen width are probably using a tablet and are intent on reading, they made the decision to remove the ads and focus on content and navigation.

The last break point at 610 pixels assumes that all users will be using a handheld device and coming to read a specific article.

They remove the top navigation bar — as well as the social icons — and condense the main navigation menu into a drop down.

4 Final Questions to Consider

I would encourage you to think through your responsiveness as much as you would think through any other content layout decision.

For responsive design to do what it’s truly capable of, we need to change our thinking and change how we organize our content.

Ultimately it comes down to choosing what content you want your users to experience, in their own context? In his chapter on organization, Luke Wroblewski offers four principles that every designer and developer should when considering responsive design:

Have I thought through how people will use their mobile device on my site? Have I placed an emphasis on my content (as you should) rather than graphics or navigation? Have I provided relevant options for exploring and pivoting? Has my design and content maintained clarity and focus?

StudioPress is happy to announce the release of the Cre8tive Burst 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can purchased here.

Cre8tive Burst was developed by Shannon Dow of EightCrazy Designs, and can be found in the StudioPress Marketplace. As a reminder, these are quality themes from our community and not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Cre8tive Burst child theme includes the following features: 4 color styles, 3 layout options, custom background, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, theme options, threaded comments.

Take it for a test drive…

Screenshot of the Cre8tive Burst Theme

StudioPress is happy to announce the release of the eleven40 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be downloaded by Pro Plus members in the support forum. All others can purchase the package here.

Mobile Responsive Design

The eleven40 theme is the second child theme released here at StudioPress which has been developed to be mobile responsive in design. It’s also the first theme we’ve developed that extends 1140px wide vs. our current themes which are 960px.

Click here to see how the eleven40 theme looks across mobile devices.

Theme Features

The eleven40 theme includes the following features: 6 layout options, 4 theme colors (blue, green, orange, red), custom background, featured images, footer widgets, mobile responsive design and threaded comments.

Take it for a test drive…

Screenshot of the eleven40 Theme

Genesis has a long tradition of being extremely flexible for the average user while at the same time remaining developer friendly. This latest release continues that tradition in a big way. Our sincere thanks to a group of Genesis power users for helping turn Genesis 1.8 into a developer’s dream, without sacrificing any of the usability that we’ve all come to know and love.

Front End Redesign

Genesis 1.8 ships with a hot new default style on the front end. And while we know that you would never activate Genesis directly, this new style can, and no doubt will serve as the basis of many of the beautiful creations our users continue to push out.

This modern new look takes a step into the realm of responsive design, adjusting to fit whatever device on which you happen to be viewing the site, including smart phones and tablet computers.

New SEO Controls

One of the biggest weaknesses of the Genesis SEO controls was the fact that you couldn’t actually control the text displayed on category, tag, and term archive pages. All you could do was decide whether or not you wanted the term title and description to display.

With Genesis 1.8, this all changes. You now have the ability to control EXACTLY what gets displayed on your term archive pages.

New Extendable Classes for Creating Admin Menus

Considering how many Genesis-specific plugins there are out there, we imagine that more than a few developers are frustrated at how difficult it was to add new Genesis admin menus. In Genesis 1.8, it gets about 100x easier. How much easier? See for yourself.

Completely Disable a Navigation Menu, from functions.php

If you’ve ever build a Genesis Child Theme for a client, and knew you’d have no use for the Primary or Secondary Navigation menu, you know how hard it can be to keep your client from messing with the Theme Settings and potentially ruining your beautiful design.

So, with one line of code, you can now disable either menu. It works using the “theme support” method. By default, both menus are enabled. But, you can use this line of code to change which menus are supported via your child theme.

remove_theme_support( 'genesis-menus' );

This line will remove both menus. But let’s say you just want to remove the secondary nav menu, and leave the primary menu intact. Easy.

add_theme_support( 'genesis-menus', array( 'primary' => 'Primary Navigation Menu' ) );

This line indicates that you ONLY want the primary nav menu to be enabled.

Color Style Options

If you’re building a child theme and want to give users the ability to choose a color scheme from the Theme Settings page, this option is for you.

add_theme_support( 'genesis-style-selector', array( 'theme-blue' => 'Blue', 'theme-green' => 'Green', 'theme-orange' => 'Orange', 'theme-red' => 'Red' ) );

Just add this to your child theme’s functions.php file, and Genesis will handle the rest. A new box will appear in Theme Settings, and users can choose the color scheme for their site.

Genesis handles the body class, and all you have to do is build the CSS. Less coding. More designing. You know you love it! More here.

Code Standards and Inline Documentation

One of the core values of the Genesis coding style is that we want you to be able to find what you need without using a Genesis dictionary. Clarity is king. But how awesome would it be if each of the functions in Genesis had an explanation of what it did right above it? Done!

Thanks to Gary Jones, Genesis 1.8 is chock-full of inline documentation.

In addition, Genesis has been trying to move towards the WordPress coding standards for a few versions now. As of 1.8, I think we’re pretty much all the way there. Code now has room to breath, with plenty of whitespace for readability.

The Rest

Since WordPress 3.3.1 was recently released, Genesis 1.8 does require this latest version of WordPress. It’s always good to stay up to date anyway, so go ahead and upgrade with confidence knowing that Genesis is fully compatible.

To see a more comprehensive list of changes in Genesis 1.8, check out this page.

Note: Users of WordPress 3.2.1 or older will not be prompted to upgrade to Genesis 1.8 via their dashboard. Please upgrade to WordPress 3.3.1 first, then our update servers will prompt you to update within 24 hours.

So what are you waiting for?! Go upgrade, already!

Contributors

A very special thanks goes out to the developers that helped make Genesis 1.8 happen. Jared Atchison, Charles Clarkson, Chris Cochran, Nick Croft, David Decker, Remkus de Vries, Bill Erickson, Gary Jones, Travis Smith and Ade Walker.

The holidays were a very happy time for StudioPress affiliates.

Sales for StudioPress themes stayed strong through the end of the year, letting us pay our top affiliate $6,235.65 in commissions last month, just for promoting Genesis and our themes.

(are you a StudioPress affiliate yet?)

To make our “most popular Genesis Framework child themes” posts more interesting, this month we’re going to start listing our Top 10 best selling themes instead of only our Top 5.

In December 2011, the top 10 selling StudioPress child themes were:

10. Driskill

Separating the best from the rest is the Driskill theme by Bill Erickson, StudioPress’ first responsive design. Clean and contemporary, it’s no surprise this is used for both personal and professional sites of all kinds.

9. Minimum

Sometimes less really is more. The popularity of StudioPress’ Minimum theme proves that solid content with great navigation can be all you need.

8. Modern Blogger

A strong seller since its introduction to the Genesis Child Theme Marketplace in September, Lindsey Riel’s Modern Blogger theme marries comfortable design with modern sensibilities.

7. Associate

When your company’s image is on the line, you need to be sure you’re putting your best foot forward. The Associate theme empowers you to do just that.

6. Generate

If this theme had another day or two to sell, it would have likely made the Top 5. Released last month to rave reviews, Generate is the theme to use if you’re serious about growing your email list.

5. Magazine

When you have a ton of content and need a sleek way to organize it on your site, the Magazine theme is an excellent choice. With lots of customization options and easy navigation, your content is free to steal the spotlight.

4. Lifestyle

The Lifestyle theme never ceases to amaze me. People are using this flexible theme for every kind of site imaginable, and considering the number of design options provided, Lifestyle isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

3. Enterprise

The Enterprise theme offers a professional frame for corporate-style sites, giving you the approachability you desire and the trustworthy image you require.

2. News

Savvy publishers know that the key to content-heavy sites is simple, yet stunning, navigation. The News theme offers that and more for publishers of every type of media.

1. AgentPress

Boasting 5 color styles, smart homepage designs, IDX integration and simplified posting options for listings, AgentPress continues to lead the StudioPress theme charge. Check out the AgentPress showcase to see how smart real estate professionals are letting Genesis work for them.

Were these the themes you expected? Have a favorite you think should be in the Top 10 for January?

Sound off in the comments!

The official HostGator Company blog

Imagine if you were able to genetically combine Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Darth Vader and Barbara Streisand into one horrifically terrifying being. Now imagine that being is actually a piece of proposed legislature — the terrifying creation in your midst would then be the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which is currently being considered by the House.   SOPA, aka H.R. 3261 is a bill right now in the House sponsored by R-TX Lamar Smith. It’s not just any bill though, it’s a bill that would allow the USDOJ, RIAA, MPAA and anyone else who lobbies for the entertainment industry to effectively censor the internet to suit their needs.   James Allworth recently wrote “Is this really what we want to do to the internet? Shut it down every time it doesn’t fit someone’s business model?” and I couldn’t agree more. Censorship is a slippery slope. Not only that but it also creates an absurd amount of bureaucratic busy work. Here at HostGator we already spend a HUGE amount of time answering DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requests. If we allow our representatives to begin deciding what is and what isn’t ok for you to view on the internet then where will it ...

Snappy here with an important announcement! HostGator.com has sent me a company memo this morning confirming that they are once again participating in National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October and I wanted to pass the good news along to you. Memo: “In 1985, the search for a cure for Breast Cancer was gaining headway and AstraZeneca founded National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of this growing cause. Thanks to the establishment of NBCAM, in October of each year, organizations across the nation focus on the fight, helping to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in the race against breast cancer. HostGator.com is proud to join these organizations in their support for a cure. This year, in honor of NBCAM, HostGator.com has turned Snappy the Gator pink on the website. We have also set up a special coupon code ?PINK? which will allow 20% off the first month of any hosting account we offer. We will be donating the proceeds from the first month of every sign-up that uses this code to breast cancer research. We have also created a few banners for our clients who wish to let the world know that their web host cares ...

I receive hundreds of emails a month from customer’s thanking me for the great service we provide and even a few letters utilizing the old fashion snail mail method. The majority of snail mail reviews I receive are complaints about the hosting services my company has provided. The only problem is that more times then not they get my name correct and the company I own wrong. The Letter: I decided to have a little fun with my response to them???? Dear Customer, I’m emailing you in regards to a letter I received in the mail from you today. In this letter you described a few recent negative support experiences you had with Inmotion hosting. I wish I could say I’m sorry for these negative experiences you had but unfortunately I’m not. In fact It pleases me slightly to hear about your poor experience with Inmotion. I highly recommend you take your business to hostgator.com immediately. As owner of Hostgator I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you receive 99.9% uptime along with 24/7 quality support. If you’re interested in signing up with us I’ll be happy to give you the first 6 months of service free to try us out. I’ll also do my ...

Greetings, Domains, Domains, Domains Everyone is interested in an update on our domain registrar launch. We hear you, loud and clear! While we can?t nail down an exact launch date quite yet, this is a top priority and it’s something that we are working on every day. We have greatly expanded our development team (over 10 members now) to launch this and other HostGator products as quickly as possible. So without making any false promises, we can tell you it is coming “soon.” HostGator Biggest Loser: HostGator held its own biggest loser 2.0 recently. It was a great success with many of our employees losing lots of weight! There was also a friendly competition between the Austin and Houston offices for who would lose the largest percentage of body weight. Austin won! Tim B. was the overall winner, losing nearly 14% of his body weight! Great work. With the win, the Austin office was treated to a great ?Grill Fest? on July 1st. We were busy in June We thought we handled a lot of support inquiries in May (roughly 520,000), however we blew that away in June. We answered: 193,708 Chats 105,000 Calls And 252,693 Tickets Over 551,400 chats, calls and tickets were answered in June. Accept credit card payments online! Are you looking to sell products ...

Greetings, Gators, Another month already!? We know we’re a little behind on this month’s newsletter, sorry about that! We once again have some great announcements for you this month though. We Launched Unlimited Shared Windows Hosting: We are excited to announce that we launched Windows shared hosting services last month. More information can be seen at www.hostgator.com/windows-hosting.shtml We’re offering unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, Parallels Plesk control panel, ASP/ASP.net Support, Microsoft SQL 2008 (R2) and many more features! Simply check out the new windows hosting page for more information. New SiteBuilder! Beautiful Designs coming soon! After MONTHS of searching and testing out more site builders than I originally thought were even available, we have found the best ? and our clients deserve nothing but the best! We will be introducing BaseKit, FREE to all of our clients within the next 60 days (at most). Why BaseKit? Here are just a couple of the reasons we chose BaseKit: Extremely easy to use Completely Drag and Drop Huge List of beautifully designed templates that you can customize Tons of additional widgets for you to implement (Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, RSS, Flickr, forms, YouTube, PayPal, calendar, and many more)! Supports multiple Languages Can add/edit your own HTML and CSS Can import PSD designs Easy styling tools And many, many more! Dedicated Server Bandwidth ...

If you’ve ever been on the HostGator official blog before, you may have noticed a few things. Actually you may have noticed that something was missing. Where’s Snappy? We decided that it’s time to bring Snappy back to his natural habitat, the swamp. You’ll notice Snappy with a new modern look as he enjoys gazing at the breezy clouds and wading through the swampy waters. We want to make it easier for you to connect with us, so we put our RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter, and hiring icons above for easy access. You can now also get updates via Email to enjoy at your convenience, in addition to being able to easily share and comment in posts with Facebook and Twitter. We’re making greater efforts to roll out more blog posts, use our Flickr account actively, and upload more videos, so don’t forget to sign up for updates on the latest HostGator news! What do you think about the new design? Chime in!

Greetings, Gators, We have some exciting news and several fun HostGator happenings to share with you this month. Bandwidth Increased to 10TB on ALL Dedicated Servers! All dedicated servers now include 10TB of Bandwidth standard (an increase of as much as 8.5TB FREE!). This includes ALL current/past dedicated server clients as well as new dedicated server orders. You don’t have to do anything to upgrade and it doesn’t cost any extra! HostGator Loves Elephants! By now, many of you have heard of the actions of a competitor of ours; GoDaddy’s CEO in the killing of an Elephant (An interview of his can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFsfchClBPk). We have welcomed a very large number of former GoDaddy clients over the last month due to outrage over his actions. A client of ours recently showed us this video (it’s funny!). Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rU_iegDCzs We also had one of our clients and affiliates present us with a great HostGator ?Elephant Safe Hosting? image below: Feel free to share/use this image! Texas Linux Fest: The beginning of April we attended Texas Linux Fest 2011. We had the chance meet with clients, hire talented new members to our Linux Administration team and even show off our 5 ft tall Snappy! He was ...

Greetings, Gators! We have another exciting newsletter in store for you. A lot has been going on this month, and there are a couple of big announcements to make!   We’ve outgrown our swamp! We’re expanding! With so much growth over the last few years, we’re now outgrowing our headquarters office in Houston, Texas. So we bought a new, larger office building in Houston! It’s located on the North Loop and is a 170,000 Sq-ft Class A office building! There will be MANY more pictures to come once we get fully moved in and get it decked out, Gator style! Here are a few pictures to tide you over in the meantime:   HostGator introduces Mobile Mail! This month, we’re happy to announce the launch of our all-new mobile webmail system, which is available to all HostGator customers. The interface should work on all (or most) mobile phones, and it can be custom branded with your domain name! To see a demo of this system, simply visit: http://mobilemail.hostgator.com/ For more information and instructions on how to set this up, please visit: http://forums.hostgator.com/new-mobile-webmail-system-t118928.html?p=285010#post285010 How-to Video Tutorials We have released a great set of new video tutorials to help you utilize some of the most popular applications available, such as our ?QuickInstall? installer, and content management ...

Greetings Gators, Another wonderful month has passed here at HostGator. February was a busy, cold month for HostGator and we have some exciting events coming soon. South By Southwest: SXSW is an annual music, film and technology festival in Austin, TX. In recent years, SXSW has been a large promotion and launching ground for new companies and products including, twitter, foursquare and more! There is a lot of anticipation on what will be happening at this year?s SXSW! HostGator will be at SXSW this year! We are sponsoring the WordPress Party. If you?re going to be at SXSW, look around for us! $25 in FREE Advertising Credits to grow your business: We have partnered with Yahoo! + Bing to bring you $25 in FREE Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising credits to grow your business! To receive your free advertising credits, simply click on the button below (specific to USA based or Canada based clients) to sign up for your Yahoo! + Bing advertising credits. This offer is available to new Yahoo! + Bing advertisers only. This offer is currently only available to USA and Canada clients. Unfortunately Yahoo! + Bing are not offering credits to international users, however we ...

Anyone who has ever watched the discovery channel for an extended period of time can tell you that if there’s one thing a gator is ill prepared to handle, it’s an ice storm. Due to the recent arctic cold fronts arrival here in Houston the HG staff got to experience first hand what a Texas ice storm is all about. Leading up to the storm the mood around southeast Texas was very lively at the prospect of ultra-rare snowfall. Kids & parents alike were giddy with the notion of baking sheet sled rides, snow angels and of course the always highly anticipated snowball warfare. Unfortunately, that’s not what the residents of Houston received. Instead, Houston got a nice healthy dose of Black Ice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice). Anyone who has ever driven on or around a Houston freeway can tell you that the fearless army of amateur demolition derby drivers that regularly patrol the cities roads need no help in creating a hazardous mess on a daily basis. The heavy coat of ice on all the overpasses and onramps that morning greatly increased their effectiveness. Here’s a view of Houston’s transtar traffic map from 2/4/11. The red exclamation mark diamonds indicate either hazardous ice or wrecks: Needless ...

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It's the employees who make a business work. That's why it's so important to hire the right ones. Bob tells you his top secret technique for avoiding bad hires and hiring great employees.

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November 10, 2011 marks the 236th birthday of the USMC. Here is our 2011 Birthday Salute to The Marine Corps. Enjoy!

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It's hard getting any business off the ground. Bob steps you through 10 reasons why MOST entrepreneurs are NOT successful.

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How you use the web tells others quite a bit about YOU. Successful people know the pitfalls to avoid. It's about time YOU did too. In this video blog Bob tells YOU the top Internet 10 do's & dont's.

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Like it or not, Cyber-bullies and Cyber-haters are for real. Bob gives you his top tips for putting these pesky losers into perspective and getting them out of your hair.

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Great businesses are built on good decisions. Bob shows you the simple decision making rules he used to build 3 mega million dollar businesses.

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Bob takes an emotional, heartwarming and eye opening tour of Haiti to see what Go Daddy's donation dollars are doing and what's being done to help the poorest people in the world. It was a trip packed with surprises.

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It's a fact. Life can be a bitch. It's easy to give up. Bob shows you his best tips for hanging in there and enjoying the ride when the going gets tough. Leeann is a crazy as ever!

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It's a fact: Most businesses bite it. Bob shows you what the successful ones do to make it big. One of these secrets was used by John D. Rockefeller to become the richest man ever! Leeann is as crazy as always.

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It's true. Bob used to be one shy dude — but that was then and this is now. In this video Bob (& Leeann) take you on a hilarious journey showing you how to make shyness a thing of the past.

Domain names, web hosting, eCommerce tools and more! Whatever your Web needs, you'll SAVE 15% when you spend $50 or more through this special offer. *Not applicable to ICANN fees, taxes, shipping and handling, sale priced domains and transfers, bulk domains and transfers, premium domains, Sunrise/Landrush domain registrations and pre-registrations, memberships or maintenance plans, additional disk space and bandwidth renewals, additional AdSpace advertising funds, custom page layouts, Managed Hosting, Go Daddy branded merchandise or gift cards. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, discount or promotion, or in connection with special partnership discounts. Offer expires 11/09/11.