So for the past couple weeks I’ve been planning and plotting the future of my “location based domain”, which I spoke about last week.  I hit numerous snags in the road – first with layout and design, then with how to manage the content within pages, posts and categories and most recently, with how to tweak the homepage display to my liking.

The concept for the homepage began as a simple, static page and as days went on it gradually morphed into a fresh, solid idea.

First I wanted to display random posts on the homepage to keep the content fresh.  Then I figured how great would it be if I could make it 1 random post from 4 or 5 specific categories?  But what if I could SET these categories and easily change them whenever I wanted?  What if I set them to display as an excerpt and had a graphical icon to the left of the excerpt link to the posts’ category?  Oh man this was going to be GREAT!

I poked around the WP Codex and other Wordpress Plugin Directories to find just the plugin I was looking for… it didn’t exist.  I found a few similar but nothing that would even come CLOSE to doing what I wanted.  I tried to use existing plugins and manipulate the code to my liking… but with my limited coding skill  without any coding skill I was unable to make even morsels of progress.

At some point in this hopeless search, I stumbled upon a plugin that displayed the Latest Post From Each Category in link form.  I got so frustrated I gave up and e-mailed the plugins creator saying, “I know this is a long shot but here is what I’m trying to accomplish, is it possible?”  He gave me some code snippet that displayed links to several random posts… but not exactly what I was looking for.

Tonight, I found myself talking to him on Instant Messenger, gave him FTP access and he manually changed the code to my specifications.  I would toss out an idea and within what seemed like seconds, the changes were made and they looked amazing!  I’m telling you, this mod is going to be KILLER not only for THIS website but many for more I do in the future.  I plan on giving him a nice little chunk of change, not all up front, but definitely over the course of time as I use this simple masterpiece on several other sites.

There are a lot of rude people in this world.  The type that cut you off while driving, interrupt you while you’re talking and take third helpings of dinner at the barbeque when plenty of people haven’t had their firsts.  Then there’s the type of people who stop to let you into their lane during rush hour, hold the door for you at a restaurant or shoot you a smile or hello that makes your day.  I have to say, lately I’m beginning to think the web world has more of the latter than any other profession.

I have to give props to Matt from Dagon Designs for helping me out with this code.  The guy is a puppateer and the pages are the puppets.  They do what he tells them to – thanks man I owe you big time!

I chat with a handful of people online who have definitely helped me out on a ton of stuff and I hope I’ve somehow helped them in the scheme of things.  I probably haven’t said thank you enough so thanks to Jerxs, Jan, Tyler and dr00t.  It isn’t stressed enough how networking is of great importance – and I hope to further build these relationships over the course of the year.  And they should want to build a relationship with me because I’m headed to the top, baby (hehe)!!!!

But in all seriousness, develop some mutually beneficial relationships.  Fill each other’s gaps.  Build friendships where you’re not afraid to knock on their door and ask for a favor.  I know I’ve certainly asked and accepted for my share of favors… so I’ve to start paying it forward myself.  But if you don’t ask, you can’t receive.

Alright, to get to the top I do have to do some work for myself.  I’ve got TONS of content writing to do over the next 3 days so let’s get started!  Here goes nothing….