Advanced Blog Add-on by 4Sprung

hello,



We introduce our Advanced Blog add-on for CS Cart. As most of our add-on's it was not written to sell and monetize it but rather out of necessity for our own cart's. It hence is comprehensive, well tested and addresses all issues we found by using it on a daily base for the past 6 month.



It integrates with our Advanced SEO add-on so allows you to really get the best results from your onsite SEO efforts.



[color=#008000]Currently available for version 2.x and 3.x (version 4 in development) and currently on Special for AU$299 instead of AU$399[/color]



Over 600 hours research and development where put in to this add-on by now.



Advanced Blog Add-on for CS Cart



Blogging is one of the most effective marketing tools that a business can employ. If your customers feel that they can engage with a business directly and their concerns are being heard, they are more likely to view your company favorably and provide repeat business.



Blogging is also a crucial aspect of marketing. It plays an important role in SEO by placing keywords and anchor text in key areas and correct density on your company's website. As a result, when a potential customer search for these words, your web site will have a better chance of being displayed in search results on the front page of search engines.



The 4sprung blog add-on extension is designed to add a dynamic and interactive blog platform to your CS Cart shopping cart. The add-on allows your clients to utilise a variety of search functions and is completely integrated with social media websites. The intuitive commenting interface for blog posts and spam control tools ensure that the content on your site is relevant and informative.



The 4sprung blog extension provides an excellent tool to communicate with your normal clients as well as casual visitors to your website. The 4sprung blog tool will help you create an interactive platform that allows you to communicate directly with the customers who buy your products. You can quickly and effectively offer information to your visitors regarding store news, upcoming promotions and new products. In addition, customers can provide immediate feedback that will help improve your business.



Features[list]

[]Have your blog RSS integrated with a native RSS feed

[
]Add this social media sharing integration

[]Ability to turn your blog on and off for different stores

[
]Widgets to display relevant and latest posts

[]Search functions for both blog headers and content in front end and back

[
]Category and tag search

[]Ability to display blog menu only on blog page

[
]Comments per page limit options

[]Full Google sitempaps and analytic support for both categories and individual posts

[
]Easy insertion of Youtube and Vimeo videos into your blog posts

[]Integrated commenting system for blog posts

[
]Spam control for comments utilising captcha and submission limits per day based on user IP

[]Individual and automatic IP blocking for users who exceed limits

[
]Customisable IP blocking features

[]Ping back comment feature similar to WordPress

[
]Customer options for block list pages or detailed view of blog posts

[]Create unlimited blog categories

[
]Fully SEO optimised categorie and blog detail pages

[]Choose date and date format

[
]Customisable and SEO optimised blog home page

[]Import/Export of posts and categories (csv)

[/list]

New features as of 20.10.13[list]

[
]Bulk approve/delete implemented in admin panel for blog comments/ ping backs

[]Author tag Functionality implemented (google plus author linksfor SEO)

[
]Blog Author management (assign default author to individual blog post settings)

[]Video Blog functionality and video post management

[
]Compatibility with our Video site map add-on. If installed the rich Snippet preview may show, thumbnail , link and video duration (this is at google discretion)]

[/list]

A comment section allows you to learn about your customer's preferences, views, and choices simply by letting them express their opinions. If you allow users to say what they feel and communicate with each other, you also create a strong community where people can come to your site for information as well as promotions on your various products.



[media]Advanced Blog Addon for CS Cart - YouTube



As always, we are open to feedback from customers and will consider every feature request.

I would be interested in purchasing for a V2.2.5 store which is will possibly be upgraded to V4 towards the end of the year. What is your upgrade policy and for how long do you expect to have the price at $159? Is there any demo available of this addon? I'd like to see it hands on from the frontend and the backend.

Hello,



It comes with 3 month free updates and support, sorry no demo at this stage but most features are displayed in video.



You can see some life implementations here



http://www.4sprung.com.au/blog

http://www.silvaback.com.au/blog

http://www.wingtsun.com.au/wingtsun-blog

Blog



The price will probably stay this cheap for another 1-2 weeks.



Best regards



Steve

I would wish to confirm purchase of this addon this week, however, I would prefer to have the option to upgrade to the V4 version of the addon at the end of the year. If I purchase this addon now? at $159, with 3 months free upgrades, what would be the cost of obtaining the latest version of the addon in approx 6 months?

[quote name='StellarBytes' timestamp='1376250007' post='166655']

I would wish to confirm purchase of this addon this week, however, I would prefer to have the option to upgrade to the V4 version of the addon at the end of the year. If I purchase this addon now? at $159, with 3 months free upgrades, what would be the cost of obtaining the latest version of the addon in approx 6 months?

[/quote]



Hello,



the upgrade price is 70% of the purchase price (at the time of update) if not done at the time of purchase.

As it's greatly reduced I would suggest to choose the 12 month support and update option when you purchase.



Thanks



Steve

Given the fact V2 and V3 are redundant in terms of future updates, the $159 price is for a redundant addon. To gain any use out of it in keeping with the latest CS-Cart updates, the cost is $254.40. That's another $100 just to check whether the addon even meets CS-Cart coding standards which seem to be under scrutiny from a few forum members whom have received custom development from 4Sprung.

Hello,



In response to your query, the version 4 update is ready and is currently being tested so it will be released within next 2 weeks. We still developing, supporting and adding features for version 3x and 4x and as you probably aware many people do not update their cart system instantaneously if a new version is released so it's hardly a redundant add-on in my opinion. You are referring to one single forum member and as always there are two sides to every story, but honestly I have better things to do and will not waste my time on tit for tat forum posts or further explaining our-self.



We certainly develop as per CS Cart Coding standards (as you are aware version 4x standards are yet to be released) but nobody is perfect and if if a customer really should find any problem we are committing to fixing it within a very short amount of time.



Nevertheless, we are living in a free world so If you have concerns about our coding standards, price or just want to be negative the simple solution is don't purchase our add-on's.



Thank you



Steve

[quote name='steve22' timestamp='1376396886' post='166741']

You are referring to one single forum member and as always there are two sides to every story, but honestly I have better things to do and will not waste my time on tit for tat forum posts or further explaining our-self.[/quote]

Wrong. A “few” usually indicates more than one. It is most definitely more than one I'm afraid.

[quote name='steve22' timestamp='1376396886' post='166741']We certainly develop as per CS Cart Coding standards (as you are aware version 4x standards are yet to be released) but nobody is perfect and if if a customer really should find any problem we are committing to fixing it within a very short amount of time.[/quote]

That's the problem, you won't provide any demo and the only information I have from anyone but 4Sprung is the coding is not up to scratch and does not fit in to the CS-Cart architecture. Why not provide a demo so we can physically see the addon in action, both frontend and backend, to show the addon does exactly what it should, how it should?



Until then, I'm out I'm afraid.

that’s perfectly fine can’t make it right for everyone…





Here are some reviews from people who purchased our SEO add-on

Providing a demo is the very least any addon developer should do. I have purchased several addons equating to well over a 5 figure sum and even then, the only addons I own are ones where I have seen a demo or similar.

We would be interested, but not without a demo of the back-end too. Please provide a link to a demo so we can test.

[quote name='clips' timestamp='1376517362' post='166832']

We would be interested, but not without a demo of the back-end too. Please provide a link to a demo so we can test.

[/quote]

Thank you, glad to see I'm not the only one trying to be reasonable. After all, the customer is always right.

see Stella that’s where we beg to differ, the customer is not always right, every interaction requires two parties and just because you are a “potential” customer you are not always right. I can see how it would be beneficial to have a demo for the add-on however at present we simply don't have it. After your previous posts, which lack common courtesy, questioning our integrity and coding standards we are not interested in your business or haveing you as a customer so we would greatly appreciate if you could stop posting in our threads and we can end this discussion. Thank you very much Steve

[quote name='clips' timestamp='1376517362' post='166832']

We would be interested, but not without a demo of the back-end too. Please provide a link to a demo so we can test.

[/quote]





sorry clips at present we don't have a demo just the video which explains and show's the back-end etc. and I can point you to several carts where you can see the front-end implement. If you have any specific question please email us and we are happy to answer them. Will be looking into possibly setting up a demo again but can't give you a time frame.

You won't get anywhere in life with that attitude. Fact.

[quote name='StellarBytes' timestamp='1376520347' post='166837']

You won't get anywhere in life with that attitude. Fact.

[/quote]



funny I'm actually already somewhere !



just give common courtesy a go Stella and treat people how you like to be treated maybe that makes you a happier person

Hi Steve, your blog sounds interesting for my websites. An online demo would be really useful, as otherwise its almost a blind purchase. You are correct that there is a video, but that does not let me check if the blog meets the needs of my websites.



I agree that the customer is not always right, but at the same time it does work well to meet the customers needs and requests as much as possible. But that is up to you. :)

[quote name=‘P-Pharma’ timestamp=‘1376521674’ post=‘166840’]

Hi Steve, your blog sounds interesting for my websites. An online demo would be really useful, as otherwise its almost a blind purchase. You are correct that there is a video, but that does not let me check if the blog meets the needs of my websites.



I agree that the customer is not always right, but at the same time it does work well to meet the customers needs and requests as much as possible. But that is up to you. :)

[/quote] Yes you are 100% right and we do this whenever we can (otherwise we would not be in business for over 17 years and have customers who are with us for over a decade) The “sound makes the music” please send us an email and we see that we can give you access to one of our development carts.

Quick update:



We just testing Google Author Implementation and a couple of other improvements:

[list=1]

[]Support for the Ultimate version

[
]SEO URL issue fixed (Now allowing special character in blog title)

[]Bulk approve/reject implemented in blog comments/ ping backs in admin panel

[
]Author Functionality implemented (google plus author links for SEO)

[*]Blog Author management and assign default author for blog post settings implemented. (Rel tag implemented)

[/list]

Regards



Steve

Full Feature List of our Advanced SEO Addon for Cs-Cart by 4Sprung



[size=5] Features:[/size]



[indent=1]4sprung's Advanced CS Cart Add-On offers a visual On-Page SEO Optimisation Check for Products, Categories, and CMS Pages. Both SEO novices and intermediate users can use the add-on to save time and optimise their current content.[/indent]



[indent=1]Our SEO Optimisation utilises a variety of proven techniques to enhance your blog post and achieve better rankings across all search engines. Improving your ranking in Google will result in more visitors and increased sales. This optimisation includes but is not limited to:[/indent][list]

[]H1, Hs and H3 check

[
]Optimised Keyword Density

[]Keyword Bold count

[
]Internal Links count

[]Optimised Word Count

[
]Use of Image alt text and captions

[*]Ensuring keyword placement in the last sentence of each post

[/list]

[size=5]Advanced Meta Tags[/size]

Our advanced SEO add-on for CS cart provides you with the option of using multiple advanced meta tags such as Meta Robot Follow or Nofollow, Archive, and no Snippet.



[size=5]Exclude Pages from CS Cart Site Map[/size]

There are times when you may need to prevent certain pages from being tagged by Goog'es XML site map. For example, you may use add-word landing pages that need to excluded in order to maintain your search ranking. WIth our add-on, you can specify which pages are shown and which are unlisted. By default, all pages are displayed.



[size=5]Rich Snippet Preview[/size]

The rich snippet preview provides an indication of how your site will look for a Google search query, taking into account the content in your meta description.



[size=5]Automatic Meta Description Tag Creation[/size]

If your business needs to create new products quickly, often times you will not have the time to input customised meta descriptions. Our auto-fill function will fill the meta description with the first 164 characters from your product description. While these features need to be enabled on a per product basis, after the initial setup it will save you a lot of time and avoid having to leave the meta description empty.



[size=5]301 Redirection Management[/size]

Our 301 redirection management system for CS Cart will help you avoid 404 errors that can harm your search engine ranking. If you change the URL for a specific product, the previous address would be logged as a 404 error by Google. Our Advanced SEO add-on will create a 301 redirect every time you change a URL. Old URLs can be looked up in our 301 redirect history.



If an item is out of stock or has been replaced, instead of deleting the product you can simply use the 301 redirect to usher them to an alternative page, which will prevent a 404 error and maintain your site's ranking.



Bulk changes of dozens or even hundreds of URLs is also possible by importing a CSV spreadsheet with the old and new URLs, provided they are valid CS cart addresses. The 301 redirects are then created automatically, and can be edited through the admin panel.



All these features also are available in our advanced blog add-on for CS cart.



[size=5]Automatically redirect non www. to www[/size]

CS Cart serve the same pages under different URLS. This in turn creates duplicate content, a practice that is frowned upon by Google's search algorithm. For instance, most CS-Cart installations are available through both www.yourhomepage.com and yourhomepage.com. 4Sprung's Advanced SEO add-on will automatically create 301 redirects for the appropriate pages and remove and duplicate content.



[size=5]URL Canonicalization and duplicate content fix for CS Cart[/size]

When there are multiple URLs that point to the same product, you will want to canonicalize one address as the most relevant one for search engines.



For example, you may have the following URLs for the same product:



yourhomepage.com/product2.php

yourhomepage.com/category1/product2.php

yourhomepage.com/category3/product2.php

yourhomepage.com/category4/product2.php



Google's search engine will interpret this is as duplicate content, despite all addresses leading you to the same page. However, with the Advanced SEO add-on for CS cart, these URLs are automatically canonicalized, pointing the ancillary URLs to the root URL.



The add-on also automatically creates a canonical link for index.php



All of this happens automatically after installation. However, we also offer the option to manually canonicalize a URL, in the instance the default options do not apply. For example, you may have four slightly different products that have identical product descriptions, and you want to link them to a single main product page. The add-on by default will canonicalize these four to themselves. Manually editing can link them to the main product.



Created Automatic 301 Redirect When Changing from a Flat URL Structure to a Category URL Structure



With CS cart you have the choice of showing a flat URL structure so categories do not appear in the URL. However, if you change your mind at a later point, altering the addresses with result in losing all your previous Google rankings. Our Advanced SEO add-on will automatically create 301 redirects to ensure the old flat URLs do not send users to a 404 page.



[size=5]Access Permissions[/size]

Our advanced SEO add-on for CS cart is integrated into the CS cart permission system. As a result, you can control the level of access to employees, consultants, and other users



[size=5]Correct CS Cart’s 302 redirects[/size]

Running your CS Cart installation without enabling SEO friendly URLs can result in a lowered ranking. However, if at a later point you decide to enable them, CS cart will by default create 302 redirects from the old URL to the new SEO friendly address. 302 redirects are typically not a recommended solution and frowned upon by most search engine experts. Our add-on solves this quandary by converting all 302 redirects into 301 redirects.



[size=5]SEO Friendly Testimonial Page[/size]

CS-cart by default testimonials feature using discussions. However the Testimonial page is not indexable by google. After installing Advanced SEO Plugin, You can make testimonial page indexable.



To make the testimonial page SEO Friendly:

  1. Go to Website Content >> SEO Rules
  2. Change seo name “testimonials” against dispatch value “discussion.view”



    [size=5]Google Rich Snippets and Meta Data Support[/size]

    Rich snippets are designed to summarize the content of a page in a way that makes it even easier for users to understand what the page is about in our search results. Using Rich snippets, information can display product, price, availability, and product reviews in search results.



    https://support.goog…wer/99170?hl=en



    Features:

    display product price;

    display product status - “In stock”, “Out-of-stock”;

    display product rating marked with stars;

    display the number of product reviews;



    Dependencies:

    Please, install and enable “Comments and Reviews” add-on if you want to show rating and the number of reviews in a Rich Snippet for your products.



    Notes:
  3. The Advanced SEO add-on uses the standard template of a product details page, if you use a modified skin, your modified template for a product details page may partially change to a standard one or you need to modify your page accordingly.




  4. After enabling the “Google Rich Snippets” add-on, you can test you pages using googles Rich Snippets Testing Tool.

    http://www.google.co…ls/richsnippets