There’s a number of [placeholder] links in the menu bar, but don’t let those fool you. A LOT got accomplished today. The Locations page is fully laid out, the “slurl” shortcuts are now using the prettier “maps.secondlife.com” interface, the ER Story page is finished as well. The Contact Us page is working nicely, and the captcha system for that is now using similar fonts to the captchas used on the rest of the site. Likewise, the front page has been transitioned from a static page, to live blog content. The twitter widget is working, the “Link Up” links are working, and there’s even the beginnings of a blogroll links section as well!

Smileys are working, the Facebook “like”, Google “+1″ and Twitter “tweet” buttons are installed, and seem to be working as intended. Post avatars are working just the way I like them, though I will need to go through and weed out my duplicate user pics. I managed to work out how to semi-easily host images on Picasa, and how to hotlink them back into the site.

Over and over again, piece after piece of this project has snapped together like a lego set. It’s been a lot easier since I decided to stop fighting templates. So often when I’ve worked on wordpress sites, I’ve tried to force the site, program, and template to conform to my design ideas. Instead this time, I’m choosing to accept the template for what it was intended to be, and am trying to use the software the way it was intended. Still, I’ve got nearly a dozen plug-ins installed, but they’re augments, rather than replacements for existing functionalities.

Part of the credit goes to the folks at Theme4Press, for their relatively simple Evolve theme. While its hard-coded css leaves a lot to be desired, the theme has required hardly any modifying to make the site appear the way it does now. The theme has lots of built-in options, and plenty of settings to customize the look.

There’s still plenty left that needs doing, of course. The Affiliate Program section alone will probably require SEVERAL pages to cover all the ins and outs of setting up the affiliate vendors, handling problems, etc. The Products section is a whole huge project all by itself. Not just deciding how I want to present the products on the site, but deciding what parts of that information I should leave hosted remotely, whether I should make individual product pages on the site here, or simply link to the identical information on the SL Marketplace listing for each product. And then of course, I need to update all 75+ listings ON the Marketplace… since most still have garbage BBCode leftover from before the Xstreet site closed down.

Spinning off the “Winter” content is making more and more sense as time wears on, allowing me to link to “personal blogs” on that site, being able to dabble in the occasional “Internet Drama”, post lol-cats, review products.. as well as publicizing various tutorials, videos, and other “not ER” content, without having to compete for precious site real estate with the ER site.Of course the downside to that idea, is that it will probably be a short while before I can devote time to setting THAT blog up.

But assuming I do decide to go that way, that will mean that the “About Winter” page will probably NOT get written.. at least not on the ER site proper, and the placeholder link will probably evolve into a big shiny button that says “Click here for my personal site”.

The biggest upside to that idea, is that the ER site can be “all business”.. making it that much easier for customers, affiliates, and whoever to find the specific, relevant information they’re looking for.. without sifting through my crackpot conspiracy theories, junk food recipes, and out-dated video tutorials for using Sculpty Paint.

All in all though, I feel like I accomplished a HUGE amount today, and up-to-now.  The site is already a great deal more usable than it EVER has been in the past, and it’s only going to improve from this point. But for tonight, it’s time to step away from the computer, and go relax and watch a movie.