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Messages - Amanda_K
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51
« on: August 03, 2013, 17:23 »
What version number are you installing? Have you tested with another browser just to rule out any weirdness there?
52
« on: August 02, 2013, 13:12 »
Congrats Cory! You are an inspiration for sure (and not in the I'm gonna knock-off your vectors way  ) I remember reading your monthly update posts on your blog when you first started and being impressed enough to jump back into direct selling, so thanks for sharing and being a great example.
53
« on: August 02, 2013, 12:34 »
As a general rule of thumb, just having your own profiles and posting about your work doesn't do much for you. Making content that people really like may result in them sharing it on their profiles which is much more useful as it may bring new visitor to your site to check things out. Personally I like to go with some subtle, well-placed sharing buttons and have the profiles hanging around but I don't go out of my way to blurt out my every thought and pictures of my lunch on those profiles like some people seem to need to  I don't think a Facebook account is 100% necessary, I find their privacy controls (or lack there of) were making it hard to separate business and personal which is one of the many reasons I dumped it as the start of the year. It's pretty much down to personal choice, give people the option to share your images but don't annoy them by shoving the options in their face and you should be fine. Don't stress about spending time sharing if it's not your thing, you're better off using that time to shoot new images if you're going for traffic and sales. Edit: Ha, Leo beat me and summed it up much more efficiently!
54
« on: July 31, 2013, 22:47 »
It will all work automatically once things are set up properly. I believe that problem is related to your links not being set. Try the solution above and let us know if it works  You might want to check out the getting started guide on that site as well it will walk you through some of the other settings that need attention.
56
« on: July 27, 2013, 23:15 »
Hi David, just saw your message. This would need a custom CSS fix to work with that plugin, since they all come with some of their own styling rules it can be a bit tricky and throw things off. I am sending you some custom CSS to try out (see email) so let me know if that works.
I believe SymbioThemes and my other sites had some scheduled downtime today, Bluehost sent out a notice about server upgrades so that may be why you had trouble accessing things earlier. (I also made sure the log in widget is back on the sidebar, sorry about that!)
57
« on: July 25, 2013, 13:51 »
Which is probably the cause for your version number missing. That is listed in the main css file. Not updating those will eventually cause problems, which is why a child theme is still a better practice.
58
« on: July 17, 2013, 22:36 »
Here's the thing. If people want to do this, they can get together and do it in a closed network. You could cover things like centralized logins/terms and cart not to mention quality control etc. You could even have your own branding of the group. The smaller the group at the beginning, the easier it would be to agree on things and then add people as the details are ironed out. It's a good idea I'm interested to see who moves forward with it.
The fact is that not everyone who uses the Symbiostock theme is going to want to be a part of that, some people really do prefer autonomy and control of their own sites and don't mind the extra responsibility and marketing.
Personally I think there is room for both models using the base Leo and others have built. Whoever is serious about this idea of centralizing should get together and discuss making it happen.
I'd just caution you to remember that with an open source solution that is already "out there" there is really no way (or reason to) force every single person who uses the theme into the same terms. There is a post about hub sites Leo made earlier with additional ideas.
59
« on: July 16, 2013, 18:36 »
--- and my being serious is also often missunderstood.
fx I would never really, really go away.
One thing is to develop a symbiostock site, Ill probably do that as a personal outlet.
But it is far more important to do things to the frame, and I think Im the only one who wants that.
I'm sure you aren't the only one, everyone has an "ideal" in mind, but not all of us are programmers. I get that. I had some serious struggles trying to bend other solutions to my will, and was I was genuinely distressed that they could be BETTER, perfect even! And still with Symbiostock there are things I'd maybe do differently if it was solely my project, but the beauty is that the base is there, and it's open, so we can build these things. I think the greatest thing is that this is a start, a step in a great direction and will hopefully encourage everyone to take a second look at the possibilities that are out there for them beyond the big agencies, even if Symbiostock isn't the answer for everyone's needs I hope it can be a shining example of stepping out of the box so to speak.
60
« on: July 16, 2013, 16:02 »
You can add :
.rev_slider {
margin-bottom: 30px;
}
to your child theme css. The only downside is this will add space wherever else you put ta revolution slider.
61
« on: July 16, 2013, 13:38 »
Sorry to say.
Take this shop:
http://www.dashphoto.eu/
all very nice, nice layout, good quality of photos, everything is fine.
But ask yourself, would you as a customer, sign in at a site that you dont know anything about.
No legal entity, no telephone, no country, no contact person.
I wouldnt sign in. I wouldnt dare to pass my credit card info to such a place. And my boss would certainly not allow me, nor would the IT department.
and next problem... it wont take long before there are real nigerian scams among the shops in the symbiostock network. And then it all falls apart.
The flaw in your logic is that there are plenty of customers who do shop at unknown sites. (Also, not all customers think like you, so speaking for them as a whole is a bit...odd?) Last year I made more per month on average at my (unknown) Ktools site than I did at any agency other than SS and Clipartof, and a couple of months it even matched or surpassed them. To the point where I started eliminating micros right and left. And that's with Ktools, I'm even more interested in Symbiostock based on SEO and traffic so far. Facts from my experience (going on 4 years with independent sites): 1) Roughly 95% of my sales are coming from search traffic. The other 5% are returning customers. 2) I do not advertise. At all. Haven't spent a dime. 3) I have consistently made as much on my sites as I do monthly at the agencies. (100% royalties minus PP fees and hosting still adds up pretty quickly.) As far as your Nigerian scam theory goes, PayPal has buyer protection mechanisms, and controlled dispute functions. And before you ask, no...I've never had a customer buy an image and then dispute the purchase to get it for free. In my opinion you can waste a lot of time being afraid of all the worst case scenarios and be leaving money on the table. I completely understand hesitations for those who don't think it will work, but that's a bit different than coming in an unilaterally stating "IT WON'T WORK" without having ever tried or having anything to back up your statement. You raise some valid points about the organization aspect and yes we still have a ways to go but for an open source project this young, it's great to see how things have blossomed already. It's so easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize rather than getting involved and educating yourself or better yet contributing.
62
« on: July 16, 2013, 13:20 »
Nope, it's not just you, I'm on Bluehost. I tried it and got:
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare symbiostock_image_manager_register() (previously declared in /home/cartoo11/public_html/wp-content/themes/symbiostock-child/inc/rf-custom-post-functions.php:9) in [...]public_html/wp-content/themes/symbiostock/inc/rf-custom-post-functions.php on line 99
I did notice that rf-custom-post-functions.php has two calls to included classes that may cause issues. I'm going to test adding them and do some research.
63
« on: July 16, 2013, 12:39 »
It's a bit hard to tell what could be happening without knowing much about your local testing setup, a little Googling looks like that error may have to do with the PHP version being used. Can you check that for us?
Also, just curious did you activate the network? I'm not certain if that would cause errors on a local environment depending on the set up. I took a look at the line it's referencing and I don't see an obvious cause for the error but I'll send AJT a note to double check since it looks like it's in his network search function.
65
« on: July 15, 2013, 20:17 »
Thanks Cathy, I'll do that tonight and write it up in the knowledge base. I know they advertise automatic back ups on many hosts but it usually doesn't include database as well, so it's important people don't rely on the auto host back up without checking. I'll give the Drobox plugin George lists a try as well, it's probably good to have a hosted back up and one of your own if you're the paranoid type like me
66
« on: July 15, 2013, 18:27 »
You have good questions, it looks like a lot of them have been answered for you. The creator of Symbiostock has never expressed interest in making the theme closed source at any point so theoretically it will stay open forever, and anyone could fork it to change/build on it. If they do, hopefully the will be aware that much of the value is in the networked aspect of the search results and changing too much may cause it not to be usable in that capacity. As for your title, I'm sure there's no fear since the whole project has been just about as open as can be, but speaking strictly for myself ...it's not the nicest thing to read after just spending another several hours today writing documentation and tutorials. I guess it's fine, I don't expect everyone to fully embrace the project before they know anything about it. I'll try to include answers to these questions in the knowledge base, for people who are curious in the future. Funny I was just writing up an article on Privacy Policy issues before I read this. Guess we better hurry up with the documentation!
67
« on: July 15, 2013, 17:44 »
Ron, I'm curious about this and want to add a guide to SymbioGuides on it, is Bluehost backing up your complete site files AND your WordPress database? Also, is it automatic? I have gotten notices from them occasionally that once your account reaches a certain number of files they don't do their automatic backups anymore so mine haven't been active for a while. I was also under the impression that it doesn't include database back up.
68
« on: July 15, 2013, 14:23 »
Hmm I haven't I altered that specific file, can you share what changes you are trying to make with it? Or did you copy it unaltered into your child theme?
69
« on: July 15, 2013, 13:09 »
That is the correct way and your code looks right. It wasn't working in earlier versions so it must be fixed, awesome!
70
« on: July 15, 2013, 12:44 »
A couple others have asked about this and I think Leo said he was going to make it possible in a future version by making things pluggable, so we can modify certain things in that folder. (I know I keep making small tweaks to the cart page myself) I'll see if I can find the thread, with so much going on I may have missed that change if it's already been made.
71
« on: July 14, 2013, 04:30 »
It would be fantastic if we could chat about this, especially the privacy policy/cookies page idea. Sending you a note in the morning with some ideas!
72
« on: July 12, 2013, 17:01 »
To Sue and anyone else curious about the support aspect of running your own site, this is just my personal experience. I started out selling independently over four years ago experimenting with various scripts, and never really had a problem. When I got more serious I ran a CMS Account site for two and a half years (that got steady small sales) and averaged less than one email per month, never posted phone info.
I have an active Ktools site that was one year old last month and I just checked, my support emails for the year were 16 total, and that site averages a dozen or so sales per week. I'm hoping my Symbio site will be bigger but I don't anticipate a lot of support time either.
People who are shopping online for images seem to be pretty self sufficient these days as long as the system is intuitive. I've never posted a phone number on personal stock sites and never had anyone ask for a number. A contact form seems to be sufficient.
Not sure if that makes any difference, but it might be good to know for someone on the fence. To me being independent really makes the difference. I'm currently super happy to be working on a series of illustration I plan to only upload on my symbio site and clipartof (honest people, with a small fair agency) and I'm very excited to see how sales go. I haven't felt that way with the iStock's of the world in years.
I hope everyone in this thread finds some inspiration again, best of luck!
73
« on: July 12, 2013, 14:58 »
You can use quotes from SymbioGuides if any of it is helpful, in a couple cases there I am quoting from WordPress documentation or from the forums but I've marked it as a quote where that's the case. A link back would be great if do use something.
I'd really love to add a Templates category where people can get a sample EULA, (already linked to the one provided by Jamie,) Privacy statement and Ethos as has been suggested in the comments on one of the articles. If anyone feels like volunteering these I will post them with a credit link but make it clear that they are not to be used word for word and explain the SEO aspect. (Although I don't think just one page has that much of an impact, especially since your site title and meta description would be different, so in Google's eyes it wouldn't be an exact duplicate)
74
« on: July 12, 2013, 14:41 »
Thanks Amanda
I have a question regarding licensing: is the license per user or per site as I'm planning to make more than one symbiosite?
That's a great question and a reminder to finish and publish my license somewhere between tutorials and designs! I think a lot of people will want to experiment with multiple sites maybe having a few for niches so here's what I've come up with: The initial license covers up to two live Symbiostock sites. For additional sites (beyond 2) I will be offering and add on license at 50% off the original, so $12.00 for an additional site license for CleanTheme. I wanted to note too because it came up already that you can use the theme on any development or test sites you are building locally. Tutorials: SEO, got it! I'll work on getting Yoast specific materials up it's a great plug in and I use it myself but I'm still learning my way around, so it will be good to study a bit. By the way if anyone wants to jump in with an article in an area you feel really comfortable in I'd be happy to include it with links back to your site.
75
« on: July 12, 2013, 01:10 »
Update: The bug has been tracked down and fixed. Version 2.0.1 has been sent out to all previous purchasers and has been updated in the new store. I decided to move to a dedicated site for CleanTheme and future child themes, which I've set up here: http://www.symbiothemes.com/If you have any questions on CleanTheme version 2.0 please check out the dedicated support forum here: http://www.symbiothemes.com/forums/forum/cleantheme/Thanks to those who helped trouble shoot today, I appreciate your input and patience! I'm back to SymbioGuides for a few days, feel free to message me any tutorial requests!
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