SidekickBlog

I had promised (weeks ago) to post a tutorial on how to add footer widgets to the Mimbo 3.0 theme once I figured out how to add them to http://www.recipemobile.com.  Although, I was able to make the necessary tweaks to recipemobile, I have not had the time to post a tutorial.  So, for now, I am publishing the code I have added to enable the footer widgets.  I hope to be able to update this post to a full tutorial soon.

You will have to edit 3 files in your theme:

Functions.php

In functions.php, add the following code under the existing widget code:
if ( function_exists(’register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar(array(
‘name’ => ‘Mimbo Footerbar1′,
‘before_widget’ => ‘<div class=”clearfloat”>’,
‘after_widget’ => ‘</div>’,
‘before_title’ => ‘<h3 class=”widgettitle”>’,
‘after_title’ => ‘</h3>’,
));

if ( function_exists(’register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar(array(
‘name’ => ‘Mimbo Footerbar2′,
‘before_widget’ => ‘<div class=”clearfloat”>’,
‘after_widget’ => ‘</div>’,
‘before_title’ => ‘<h3 class=”widgettitle”>’,
‘after_title’ => ‘</h3>’,
));

if ( function_exists(’register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar(array(
‘name’ => ‘Mimbo Footerbar3′,
‘before_widget’ => ‘<div class=”clearfloat”>’,
‘after_widget’ => ‘</div>’,
‘before_title’ => ‘<h3 class=”widgettitle”>’,
‘after_title’ => ‘</h3>’,
));

Footer.php

In the footer.php file, add the following code right under the footer div definition:

Style.css

Now, all you have to do is edit your style.css files to add the appropriate styling to the footers.  This is the css code that I have used to get you started.

#footerbar {
        display:block;
        clear:both;
margin-top:-10px;
list-style-type: none;
list-style-image: none;
margin-bottom:15px;
}
 
#footerbar ul {
padding-left: 15px;
}
 
#footerbar h3 {
        color:#dadada;
        font-family: 'Tempus Sans ITC','Bradley Hand ITC','Comic Sans MS','Zapf-Chancery', cursive;
        font-size: 18px;
	letter-spacing:0.15em;
border:none;
margin:0px;
}
 
#footerbar h3.widgettitle {
        color:#dadada;
border:none;
}
 
#footerbar a {
display:block;
}
 
#footerbar1 {
        float: left;
margin-right:10px;
        }
 
#footerbar2 {
        float: left;
        }
 
#footerbar3 {
        float: right;
margin-left:5px;
        }		
 
#footerbar1, #footerbar2, #footerbar3 {
width:32%;
}

Introduction

I love blogs with interesting footers.  In a typical blog, the footer describes the bottom of the website below the dynamic content and sidebars.  This area often does not receive the attention it deserves and is often used only for copyright information or some navigation links.  

I believe that a well designed footer can greatly increase a blog’s functionality and visual appeal.  Consequently when rating Wordpress themes, I give more importance to those that allow you to customize footers easily by using footer widgets.  Footers can be used in a variety of ways.

Some of the ways footers can be used

Links to important posts, pages:  This will help expose sections of your blog that need more visitors.  I have read that this also helps in SEO (although how much is debatable).  Take a look at the footer of mint.com.  I am sure that all those key words and phrases have to be adding positive SEO value to their website.

Guide your visitors to their next destination: Users reaching the end of the content on a particular page are usually itching to find something else to browse.  Unless you provide them fresh content they might just jump to another website.  If nothing else, just put a PPC ad over there.  Google link units are another option but they can look ugly. 

Affiliate links & advertisements to your own products (and other blogs): It can be argued that a high percentage of viewers who have read your blog till the bottom of the page are interested in what you have to say and would be easiser to sell to.  Take a look at the above footer snapshot from Problogger.com.  Renowned blogger Darren Rowse uses his footer to list his ‘Recommended Money Makers’ which probably contain affiliate links.  Since he blogs about blogging and has a popular ‘making money through blogging’ section, these links are a perfect fit for his website.  

Visitors that like the look of your website often look in the footer for theme attributions.  If you use a premium theme that has an affiliate program, you should definately enroll and include an affiliate link to the theme in the footer.  A short positive review of the premium theme is also recommended.

Stash content that you need on every page but does not have to be immediately visible:  This may include reciprocal links to blog directories and other links that help to promote your own blog.  Also, a contact form can be included here as visitors that want to contact you will usually make an effort to look around for the form. 

Improve your blog’s looks: Most blog footers load last and so do not interfere with the accessibility with the rest of the blog’s content.  This means that all that cool art and images that you have been hesitating to put on your blog because you fear increased load times can go in the footer (Ofcourse this does not mean you do not web optimize the images.)  If done in the right way, this can do wonders in adding personality to your blog. 

Conclusion

I am really glad the theme I am using currently for this blog came with footer widgets.  This helped me get started with using the footer effectively before I learned how to customize footers myself.  Unfortunately, the Mimbo 3.0 theme I recently switched Recipe Mobile to did not come with footer widgets.  I will try to add these myself over the weekend and will post details on this blog.  Eventually, I would also love to add some image elements there (if somebody would only help me with the art!)

Have you used footer on your blog in interesting ways or have seen it done on any other blog?  Do you believe that footers should get the same attention as sidebars and mastheads?  

Please subsribe to my RSS feed to receive updates of more articles like these.  If you find these articles useful please spread the word by using the Digg, StumbleUpon or Twitter buttons.

This article is part of an ongoing series where I share my experiences with modifying Recipe Mobile to use the Mimbo theme.  You can see the related articles here.

Introduction

In this article, I will show you how to change the hover states of important objects in your Mimbo theme.  These include:

1. The page navigation bar link hover color
2. The category bar link hover color
3. The hover effect of the lead story background
4. The default link hover colors (continue reading…)

The links below point to a series of articles on my blog about modifying the popular Mimbo 3.0 theme for Wordpress.  These posts come from my experience in changing the wordpress theme on my food website Recipe Mobile.  The reasons why I decided to change the theme are detailed here.  These are the reasons I chose to go with the Mimbo 3.0 theme and this is why I recommend using child themes to make design tweaks to your Wordpress blog.

Making parent theme modifications: This is the first part of the posts where I detail what parent theme modifications I made to the Mimbo theme.  Future posts are pending.

Modifications using the child theme:  This is the first part in the series of posts where I show what modifications can be made using a child theme.  Part 2 of the child theme changes deal with modifications of the hover state of theme items.  Other posts that deal with modifying the child theme are still to come

Please subsribe to my RSS feed to receive updates of more articles like these.  If you find these articles useful please spread the word by using the Digg, StumbleUpon or Twitter buttons.

This article is part of an ongoing series where I share my experiences with modifying Recipe Mobile to use the Mimbo theme.  You can see the related articles here.

Introduction

I apologize for the delay.  I work on many project at the same time and though most of the updates to the new Recipe Mobile website are in place, I have not had a chance to publish details in this blog as I had said I would.

Anyway, here is a start.  The last article in the Modifying the Mimbo theme series dealt with making certain changes to the index.php & header.php template files in the parent theme itself.  Now, this section is the first that will talk about modifications that can be made using a child theme.  I have already written about the advantages of styling Wordpress blogs using child themes and today I will show you how.

While the functionality of the Mimbo theme is great, I am not a fan of the greyish tones used in it by default.  The first theme I used on the Recipe Mobile website had a strong red background with green elements.  Initially, I was unsure that it would look good, but Deepa loved it and so I let it be.  Eventually, it grew on me andI realized it gave the website a unique look.  I wanted some continuity by maintaining a similar color scheme after the theme change. For that I had to change the colors of several elements of the Mimbo theme.  

In this article, I will be focusing on the major areas, where changing the color completely changed the look of the theme.  These areas are:

1. The website background
2. The category bar background, and 
3. The lead story background.

(continue reading…)

Having finally decided to go with the Mimbo Wordpress theme for Recipe Mobile, it was time for me to start customizing it.  The themes author, Darren Hoyt, recommends that style customizations should be made using child themes so that changes can be retained across future upgrades.  I have heard mention of child themes several times before but have never delved into it before. 

Luckily, Darren provides a child theme called Vintage Green on the same download page to help get started.  Installing a child theme is similar to installing a regular Wordpress theme.  You unzip and upload the theme folder to your ‘wp-content/themes’ folder and activate it from Appearance-Themes on your Wordpress dashboard.  Make sure the parent theme folder is also present in the themes folder. (Note: The child theme folder does not go into the parent theme folder but within the Themes folder itself.)  The child theme contains references to its parent theme already so every thing should happen smoothly

I have been customizing Mimbo using a child theme for only a few hours now and have already seen the benefits of using a child theme.  The only code changes that I have had to make in the parent themes files were to: (continue reading…)