Latter-day Village Square

For some time now, we have not been able to get our knowledgebases indexed by the major search engines. Due to our membership management system, which restricts access to our subscription areas, anyone or anything (e.g., a search engine-indexing spider) without a login password cannot view the knowledgebase content. That software company tried to provide a programmatic fix, but it has never really worked. With no access to the article pages, the major search engines do not know of all the wonderful content we have available.

As we became increasingly aware of the importance of keywords and search engine placement as part of our site marketing efforts, I finally worked out a solution. Our membership system has a protection method designed specifically for PHP files, which powers our knowledgebases. I finally figured in during one night of tossing and turning over this issue, that I had enough PHP troubleshooting (very different from actually writing code) experience to give the method a go.

I was finally able to make the change work, although there is one hiccup. The first time a registered member visits a newly configured knowledgebase (KB; e.g., Seminary, Primary, Primary Music, Sampler) they will see an obscure error message. This is due to the new handling of the information in their login cookie. If the member hits backup and tries the article link again, they should get a good response. I have not been able to find a solution for this; however, the workaround is easy enough to figure out; Go back, retry.

The result of this change is that non-registered users can traverse the category trees of the KBs mentioned above, where they can view up to 400 characters of the article contents. Previously, they could not even see the KB home page. These same article previews (almost 7000 counting all KBs) should now eventually appear in the major search engines, increasing our visibility and search page ranking accordingly.

We just finished adding the entire line of LDS scrapbooking rubber stamps from Sunbeam Stamps to our online store. Laura Cooke, the designer of these unique stamps has created products that help you LDS scrapbookers and crafters add an LDS flair to your creations. There are over 150 new stamps in the line; here are a few samples:

There is a stamp for almost any occasion or LDS theme, from Primary to Relief Society and Aaronic Priesthood/Young Men to Missionaries. You can create special remembrance scrapbook pages; invitations, place cards, bookmarks … the list is endless. We invite you to look over the whole line.

In our online store, click Scrapbooking in the category list and then Rubber Stamps. Here you will see that we have organized the new stamps by LDS organization or purpose.

You can also click Sunbeam Stamps in the Authors / Brands list to see an ordered list. Be sure and set aside plenty of time as there are over 15 pages of stamps to look at. Please select a few to kick your creativity up a notch!

Lori Nawyn has designed this delightful new YW Valuez memory book - and we have put together an instant download product with all the artwork and photographs with complete instructions!  If you look closely, you will notice that the book is made with white envelopes bound together with metal rings.  It takes 8 white envelopes that you decorate with print outs of Lori’s designs, scrapbook chalk, ribbons and embellishments.  Girls can put little quotes in the pockets, and there are places for photos - so they can use the book both as a reference for talks, devotionals and lessons as well as a way to remember special events and keep their YW values on their minds.  Making their Valuez books would be a great project to have the girls get together and work on.

See what’s included in the kit and more photos here.

I searched on the web for a source for all the ribbons and chalk etc - and found this website - Creative Images Rubber Stamps - they have almost everything you will need to complete the book, and your local craft or scrapbook store will probably have everything as well.

~Debra

I’d like to introduce a new artist to our LDV Neighborhood - Elise N. Black!  She has designed the sweetest Mother’s Day Collection that is currently in The Club - and if her illustrations look familiar, it is because she is one of the most frequently used illustrators for the Friend magazine for the past several years!

Elise visited with me a few months ago and I was so delighted with her work, I am just tickled that we can feature some of her work in our Download Depot!

This collection includes both line art and color illustrations, scrapbook papers and some very fun special projects, such as

• Greeting Cards
• Stationary
• Lined envelope
• an adorable Hatbox gift box

I look forward to future collaborations with Elise.  We are planning an LDS ABC Book later this year.

You can see some of her wonderful illustrations on her website - www.illustrationsbyelise.com

~Debra

A number of new items have been added recently to the Primary KB and Primary Music KB.

• April Monthly Theme Poster and Bookmarks - http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/article.php?id=1548
• April Primary Scripture Search with a fun Thomas S. Monson Puzzle -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/article.php?id=1551
• April Newsletter Template -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/article.php?id=1550
• Lesson Supplements for Primary 4 Manual -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/category.php?id=205
• Revised Lesson Supplements for Primary 2 Manual -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/category.php?id=229
• New Games added to 2008 Scripture Power Activity Day -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/article.php?id=1508
• Updated General Conference Activity Page and Worksheet -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/category.php?id=34
• We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet - song idea - Music KB only -http://latter-dayvillage.com/primarymusic/article.php?id=1462
• A new April Sharing Time about President Monson - http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/article.php?id=1563

PRIMARY OPEN HOUSE

New Primary Stake Leader Training the week before conference -
http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,8029-1,00.html

NEW IN OUR STORE:

• Baptism Clipart Collection - perfect for planning, decorating and scrapping your child’s baptism!
• NEW - Thomas S. Monson - Follow the Prophet Stickers - just in time for General Conference and the April theme.
• Prophets of the Restoration Activity Book, with activities and lessons for all the latter-day prophets - with new coloring pages and links for Thomas S. Monson.
• Scripture Mastery Stickers in 3 sizes - a great way to recognize children who are memorizing monthly scriptures or bringing their scriptures to Primary.

Today, April 1 (this is NOT a joke) we switched to a new online store and shopping cart system based on Zen Cart, a popular open source product. After an exhaustive search we determined that Zen Cart’s flexibility, extensibility, and feature set made it our best choice, even better than some system was evaluated that cost thousands of dollars. One of our main criteria was the ability to support and even expand our drop- ship and download sales capability. We believe Zen Cart fills the bill.

NOTE: the new cart system requires that every shopper create an account. Rather than integrate this cart with our membership management system and create a login for all of our members, we chose to keep them separate. Why? Simple, we have many store customers that never register for our other site features. We felt it was not necessary for them to create a full site membership simply to shop in our store.

However, creating a store account does have some advantages over our old cart system:

1. Customers can log into their store account and check that status of any order.
2. Customer who purchase download products can login and re-download a product, up to five times or for 14 days, whichever comes first.
3. We will offer account holders special discounts and can transfer gift certificate values to their store account.

Some additional Zen Cart benefits.

• Better classification of products. We revamped the store category system to make it easer for shoppers to find what they need. You can find most products using more than one category.
• A list of Artists / Brands allows shoppers easy viewing all of the products that we offer for a particular vendor.
• We display specials and reduced items on the main page, in the side boxes, and with every category page displayed. We are committed to aggressive pricing and this new interface allows shoppers to more easily find our bargains.
• Email lists – we can inform you of specials and discounts based on your purchase history. We promise not to constantly fill your email inbox, and you can always unsubscribe.
• Gift Certificates - we will be offering gift certificates, which we believe will expand our sales opportunities.
• Permanent Cart - Any products added to your online cart remain there until you remove them, or check them out.
• Address Book - We can now deliver your products to another address other than yours! This is perfect to send birthday gifts direct to the birthday-person themselves.
• Order History - View your history of purchases that you have made with us.
• Products Reviews - Share your opinions on products with our other customers.

Finally, we will be expanding our product lines by adding more and more manufacturers. There are also many other Amazon like features (e.g. others bought this and similar items, purchase items together and save) we will be adding as soon as we have the cart tweaked for maximum performance.

I hope you take a look around.

http://latter-dayvillage.com/store/

Warning, this is still a work in progress, so you may see missing images and a few warts/knots here and there. Do not hesitate to write us about your impressions and with any questions you may have.