So you’ve decided to launch a new ecommerce store. One of the first decisions facing you is which ecommerce platform to base your store on. There are many excellent ecommerce applications to choose from, including Magento, Craft Commerce, and WooCommerce, among others.
Before making a choice, you should understand what the options are and how they differ.
WooCommerce Is Free
The first things to know about WooCommerce are that it is free and open source. You don’t have to pay anything to use WooCommerce, and its code can be examined and edited by anyone. You might not understand why this matters, but if you use WooCommerce for your ecommerce store, you own and control the store and its data.
That’s not true of many ecommerce platforms — such as Shopify.
WooCommerce is based on WordPress, so before we move on to talking about it, let’s take a brief WordPress refresher. WordPress is a content management system. In fact, it’s the most popular content management system in the world by a large margin. A content management system makes it easy to publish content on the web. Rather than writing code, CMS users interact with an intuitive interface. Content management systems make web publishing accessible to everyone.
WooCommerce and WordPress
One of WordPress’ most important features is its plugin system. WordPress itself provides a core set of features for managing and publishing content, including a text editor, taxonomies for organizing content, and under-the-hood systems for interacting with web servers and databases. Plugins extend that basic functionality in interesting ways. For example, the Yoast SEO Plugin adds features that help WordPress users optimize content for search engines. There are many thousands of WordPress plugins.
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that modifies WordPress’ behavior and adds features that transform it into a powerful eCommerce platform. WooCommerce can support ecommerce stores that range from single-product stores to stores with thousands of products. WooCommerce brings to WordPress catalogue management features, navigation interface elements suitable for ecommerce stores, integration with payment gateways, tools for managing shipping, and many other features.
WooCommerce Features
WooCommerce is scalable; it’s capable of supporting very busy online retailers. It’s also mobile friendly: many shoppers make purchases on their mobile devices and mobile-friendliness helps to build great experiences for shoppers and with search engine optimization.
Just like WordPress, WooCommerce has its own plugin ecosystem, with a mixture of paid and free plugins. The plugins — or extensions as they’re called in the WooCommerce community — add features to WooCommerce, including payment gateways, analytics integrations, dynamic pricing, among others.
WooCommerce Hosting
To use WordPress and WooCommerce, you’ll need a hosting account that supports WordPress. Performance and support are especially important where ecommerce is concerned, so you should make sure you choose a hosting provider that understands ecommerce hosting and offers performance-optimized WooCommerce hosting specifically engineered to make the most of WooCommerce. Look for a host like Hostdedi.
Check out Hostdedi’ fully managed WooCommerce hosting plans to get started today.
WordPress is rightly famed for the vast array of WordPress plugins and themes it makes available to site owners. If you want to add a feature to your WordPress site, you will almost certainly find a plugin that does the job.
But, on occasion, you may need to tweak a WordPress function. Sometimes there isn’t a plugin available to do this. The solution is to add a snippet of custom code to the site. Learning how to create custom function PHP in WordPress will be key.
WordPress is a PHP application and WordPress plugins and themes are written in the PHP programming language. As a WordPress hosting client, you have access to the same hooks and tools WordPress developers use.
You don’t even have to be a PHP expert to do this. There are thousands of pre-made snippets around the web that you can adapt to your own purposes.
Take care though — there are security implications to adding code to your site and badly written code can stop your WordPress site from working altogether. Make sure you know what a WordPress function does and that it is compatible with your version of WordPress before you add it to your site.
Once you have discovered the need for a function and written it from scratch or adapted a prewritten function, where should you put it?
There is a wrong way and a right way to do this. If you do it the “wrong” way, your WordPress function may work initially, but it is likely to stop working when you update your site.
The Wrong Way to Create Custom Function PHP in WordPress
You want to learn how to create custom function PHP in WordPress. When creating custom WordPress functions, don’t use these two methods. The two most common “bad” ways to add custom functions to WordPress are editing an existing plugin or editing the functions.php file.
Don’t edit plugin files. If your snippet changes the functionality of a plugin, it might seem sensible to add the new code directly to the plugin. But, when you update the plugin, the files you have changed will be overwritten and your code will disappear.
Thefunctions.phpfile is not a general purpose dumping ground for custom code. The functions.php file belongs to your theme. If the code you want to add is theme-specific, then functions.php is a good place to put it. But, when you switch themes, the new theme will not have the custom code. Avoid putting general-purpose custom code in functions.php.
The Right Way To Add Custom WordPress Functions
There are a couple of ways to add custom functions to WordPress that will last beyond your next update or theme switch.
The Code Snippets Plugin
The Code Snippets plugin is designed for exactly this purpose. It provides a graphical interface for adding code snippets to a WordPress site. You can add as many snippets as you want, enable and disable them easily, and export them in a format that can be imported into other WordPress sites with the Code Snippets plugin.
You might find the idea daunting, but it is not difficult to build a custom plugin that can be installed on a WordPress site alongside third-party plugins. The basic structure of a minimal plugin looks like this:
A folder with the same name as your plugin, e.g. my-plugin. This is not essential but it’s useful if you want to add more files in the future.
A PHP file inside that folder called my-plugin.php
In the my-plugin.php file, add the following text:
/* Plugin Name: Example Plugin */
That is essentially all you need to create a plugin, although it won’t do anything yet. To make it useful, you need to add your custom function to the PHP file and then upload the folder to the plugin directory of your WordPress site, usually wp-content/plugins/.
If you need to add new WordPress functions, you can simply overwrite the old version with your changes.
Power Your WordPress Site With Fully Managed Hosting
If your WordPress host is not providing you with the speed, scalability, and support you need, consider fully managed WordPress hosting from Hostdedi.
Hostdedi can make your WordPress site faster with:
A built-in CDN with 22 locations.
Advanced caching for ultra-fast loading.
Image compression to lower browser load times.
And much more.
Get started with fully managed WordPress. Check out our plans to get started today.
First impressions matter and nothing shows that more clearly than a 2021 study conducted by Top Design Firms (and quoted by HubSpot). The study states that 50% of website users believe web design is critical for your overall brand.
With such little margin of error, you can’t afford to have a mundane portfolio website. The success of your design business depends on it.
Most of your website visitors will be other designers, prospective clients, and employers. To capture their attention and keep them engaged, you must build your design portfolio website the right way. But how do you go about that?
Read on to find out:
Why You Need a Design Portfolio
If you’re a designer of any kind, here are some reasons you need a portfolio:
Your portfolio acts as a professional resume. Most recruiters will find you fit for a full-time job by first looking at your portfolio.
You can show your design skills and unique expertise as a designer with your portfolio.
A portfolio helps you keep your work relevant and up-to-date with market standards.
You can use your portfolio to get freelance projects. Besides adding to your experience, side projects will make you an extra income on the side.
How To Create a Design Portfolio
1. Ensure people can easily access your portfolio.
2. Showcase your most outstanding and excellent work.
3. Go for high-resolution designs.
4. Show how passionate you are about your work.
5. Use client recommendations and case studies.
6. Showcase side projects and non-client work.
These six tips will improve the overall quality of your design portfolio. Let’s have a closer look at them.
1. Ensure People Can Easily Access Your Portfolio.
You can get as creative as you want with your portfolio website. In fact, you can show a bit of personality and expertise by building an innovative portfolio. You can also experiment with creative layouts on your website’s UX design experience.
However, you must always remember your online portfolio isn’t just for you. Many people will explore your work. That includes other designers, family, friends, potential employers, and partners.
Always choose intuitive UI designs and user-friendly website templates. That way, users can scroll through your portfolio website with little effort.
You should also keep in mind that 42% of users leave a website with poor functionality. So, make your website responsive.
Think about it. If the creative director of your dream web design firm opens your portfolio website on their smartphone, they can quickly scroll through your designs.
That’s not all. You can also take advantage of other digital platforms to enhance your portfolio. For example, a well-curated Dribbble or Behance profile is just as powerful as your portfolio. So are your social media pages. Try whatever works. You can have them all at once.
2. Showcase Your Most Outstanding Work.
Your portfolio allows you to showcase your finest work to the world in a unique way. Unless you’re Michelangelo, take some time to select your best work out of everything you’ve ever created.
Only display work you’re proud of from past projects. That helps you communicate professionalism. It also justifies new projects from employers — and incredible rewards for it.
Here, you can also curate your work based on your career prospects. Do you like building UI/UX for mobile apps? Then fill your portfolio with mobile app mockups. It doesn’t hurt to be a generalist either.
A diverse portfolio can help you show off a versatile skillset. It also displays your ability to fit into dynamic design teams.
3. Go for High-Resolution Designs.
If you’re looking to build an eye-catching portfolio, use high-quality images of your designs. High-quality visuals tie into the user experience of your portfolio website homepage.
Many people will look at them from different devices. And while an image may appear sharp on your smartphone, it may appear blurred on a large computer monitor.
If you’re a multimedia artist, always render your videos in the best quality available. Close-up images of your product designs make them appear lively. Moreover, you can always compress media files to make your website more responsive.
4. Show How Passionate You Are About Your Work.
Does design work excite you? Do you love to create beautiful redesigns or flashy fonts and typography? Then talk about it.
Potential clients and employers love designers who enjoy their work. Being a creative professional gives you room to express yourself and advertise your personal brand.
Use your passion to display your authenticity across all your design projects. It doesn’t just show confidence in your own abilities, but it also helps people connect with your work.
5. Use Client Recommendations and Case Studies.
Have you worked with other clients in the past? What did they think about your work? Client reviews can be a potent addition to your portfolio page. It’s an excellent way to show experience and expertise.
Testimonials also give your potential employers confidence about your work ethic and results.
The same goes for case studies. Use two or three previous visual design projects to discuss your design process with your potential clients. Talk about your successes and failures and how you solved critical design problems. After all, aren’t all employers looking for solutions?
Case studies also allow you to prove your ability to develop innovative solutions.
6. Showcase Side Projects and Non-Client Work.
If you’re new in the design industry, that’s okay. Any side projects, non-profit work, and collaborations can work as content for your portfolio.
Non-client work works the same way client jobs do — it gives your customers a sense of your skills and style. If you’re fresh out of design school, use the best designs you created while there. If you helped with logo design for your friend’s online store, that counts too.
Try, where possible, to only showcase real-world designs. Side projects can give you real experience working with people. Besides that, you can turn them into case studies.
What Are Hiring Managers Looking for in Design Portfolios?
Here are some key things Creative Managers look for in successful graphic design portfolios:
Self-Awareness and a Growth Mindset: Are you aware of your strengths and weaknesses? Are you working to improve your profession and yourself as a person?
Excellent Problem-Solving Skills: Can you identify problems and create a coherent plan to solve them? Recruiters find that skill valuable.
Collaboration: How well do you work with others in teams? In many cases, you’ll have to work with other people to achieve company goals.
Experience: Many recruiters prefer candidates with experience. However, you can still build it by taking internships, joining communities, and freelancing.
Final Thoughts: A Quick Guide on How To Create a Design Portfolio
If you want to enjoy success as a creative designer, ensure you add all these features to your new portfolio website. Giving recruiters and clients a seamless portfolio experience will improve your reputation and increase your income.
Are you planning to sell design assets like logos, typography, or product designs? Create your first online store using the Hostdedi StoreBuilder and go straight to market where your clients are.
