Now Available: Symbiostock Maps & Symzio Link Exchange Widget

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Just released: Symbiostock Maps & Symzio Link Exchange Widget

Our two new exciting tools are now available for our Symbiostock community to make use of. Symbiostock Maps will add a significant expansion to both the aesthetics and media advertising potential of your websites. And the Symzio Link Exchange Widget is a fantastic SEO opportunity to connect with other contributor sites and exchange ‘link juice’. Let’s go over each tool and what they provide in a more detail:

Symbiostock Maps

Symbiostock Maps is an impressive, optional plugin for Symbiostock Pro. Symbiostock Maps reads GPS information from your product pages and uses the Google Maps API to create an interactive, clickable map which showcases the locations of your media products. Perfect for those of you who have portfolios with travel locations, images of architecture and buildings from around the world, or collections highlighting natural wonders.

Symbiostock Maps is highly customizable, as we previously demonstrated with very differently set live demos:

Symbiostock Maps Demo 1 – In this demo we have images displayed all over a global map. This demo shows the default ‘terrain’ map type.

Symbiostock Maps Demo 2 – Here the map location has been set to Sydney and we’ve chosen the number of images to be displayed to only 4. As a result, Symbiostock Maps identifies which four images are closest to Sydney and only displays those thumbnails in a zoomed in view. If there were only three images geotagged nearby Sydney and the next closest image was geotagged to Melbourne, the map would automatically be more zoomed out to include that forth image’s location. The map type here is set to ‘hybrid’ and we’ve added a cyan-blue colored hue.

Symbiostock Maps Demo 3 – In this example, instead of showing image thumbnails, we’re using geotag markers. Geotag markers are clickable and just like the thumbnails they open up a larger image preview. The map type used here is ‘roadmap’.

As you can see, multiple maps can be created and inserted into different pages of your website and each individual map can be customized to focus on a specific region of the world. Customizable elements include map size, color, brightness, thumbnail size, popup preview size, popup text size and you can also add an optional title and associate a custom class to each map. With so many aesthetically geared settings you have complete freedom to play around and integrate Symbiostock Maps into the design of your unique website.

There are two ways of adding Symbiostock Maps to your Symbiostock site – as a widget or shortcode. The widget method is easier, but is dependent on your theme’s implementation of widget areas. Shortcodes can require a bit more if you want it customized, but are more dynamic and can be placed in any post and on any page. Our Symbiostock Maps Help Guide explains how to set shortcode parameters and contains useful tips using Symbiostock Maps .

Symbiostock Maps can be purchased from our store for $49. As with all our software and premium plugins, this includes lifetime updates.

Symzio Link Exchange Widget

Link Exchange Widget

The Symzio Link Exchange Widget is a fully automated link exchange system that is bundled with the the latest version of Symbiostock Pro – simply update your Symbiostock Pro install to the newly released version to access to widget.

Establishing link exchange partnerships with targeted, related websites is a long established way of giving your website’s SEO a boost. By working together and setting up a link exchange network with fellow Symzio contributors, we can essentially increase our marketing efforts and online presence by letting search engines know that although we are independent entities, we’re are also a collective – and if there’s anything to be learned from advent of social media, it is that modern search engines appreciate sites that are interconnected and communal. Link exchange partnerships also provide a good means of exchanging direct traffic.

The Symzio Link Exchange Widget is an intelligent tool which removes the regular burdens that come with link exchange partnerships. You don’t need to check for dead links, or worry about partnered sites maintaining reciprocal links. Any sites that stop working, or stop using the widget are automatically removed from the link list.

FEATURES INCLUDE:

  • Auto checking contributor sites to make sure they are online. Sites that go offline are automatically excluded so that there are no ‘dead’ links.
  • Only includes sites that also display the widget.
  • Dynamically altering the rank order in which sites are displayed sites based on how much each individual site contributes to the link exchange program. The widget uses advanced mechanisms to calculate how much each site is promoting the Symzio Link Exchange Widget – sites providing greater support are listed higher on the page and this is automatically updated.
  • The widget does not output Javascript; it outputs HTML which can be indexed by search engines and contains hard coded links to encourage SEO.
  • Will only display contributors who have been with Symzio for at least 1 month.
  • Ability to set how many contributors you want to list (minimum of 5 required).
  • Can be added to your WordPress site as a widget or shortcode.
  • Automatically uses styles that are defined in your websites theme. You can also add a custom css class to the widget and apply stylizes using your theme’s custom css area.
  • Ability to add a custom title to your link exchange area.

Information for each contributor listing is sourced directly from their Symzio public profile, including:

  • The contributor’s business name
  • Link to their independent website
  • Link to their Symzio contributor profile
  • Links to Facebook & Twitter pages
  • Description: Displaying contributor descriptions is optional. You can set the widget to display no descriptions to show short/full descriptions.
  • Thumbnail: A thumbnail is shown if the contributor has uploaded an image for their Symzio profile page. Displaying thumbnails is optional.

The more information you supply about yourself through your Symzio contributor profile, the more information can be displayed through the link widget. So it’s a good idea to fill in your Symzio profile as much as you can, including links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Below is a screen shot of how the Symzio Link Exchange Widget outputs data and you can see that some listings contain more details than others:

symzio-link-exchange-widget-sample

The widget is extremely easy to set up and can be accessed by navigating to WP Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets. It will appear in the list of available widgets as Symzio Link Exchange. You can then add this to any widget area. Once added, you can open it to access all the settings. For details on how to implement the widget using shortcodes, see this Help Guide.

The widget is released today with the Symbiostock Pro update. We encourage all Symzio contributors to get on board and implement the Link Exchange Widget on your independent sites. And if you haven’t already joined Symzio, take this opportunity to do so. By working together and supporting each other in this growing community, we continue to feed our movement towards empowering ourselves as independent artists. So let’s make the most of this opportunity and keep our momentum flowing!

Join Symzio

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Coming Soon: Symbiostock Maps & Symzio Link Exchange Widget

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Announcing the coming of two powerful new tools to get you excited towards the end of the year:

Symbiostock Maps

Coming soon is a powerful new addon called Symbiostock Maps. Symbiostock Maps will allow you to display multiple photos and media on an interactive world map. This optional addon for Symbiostock Pro uses the Google Maps API to insert a customizable map anywhere on your website. If your media is geotagged (i.e. assigned with a geographical location), Symbiostock Maps will use that information to present the location of the image on a Google map.

Multiple maps can be created to focus on different regions of the world. You can choose how many images you want shown; whether the images show up as thumbnails or location markers; customize colors; thumbnail proportions and more. When a thumbnail/location marker is clicked, a popup opens up showing a larger preview of the image – which if clicked takes the customer to the actual product page.

Take a look at a live example of Symbiostock Maps in action:

Symbiostock Maps Demo 1

To illustrate how customizable this addon is, here is another example which displays the map in ‘Hybrid’ mode and with completely different visual settings:

Symbiostock Maps Demo 2

Symbiostock Maps is perfect for artists who capture travel locations, architectural marvels and natural wonders, whether it be via photography, video or illustrations.

Further details on how to make the most of Symbiostock Maps will become available with the release of this exciting new addon.

Symzio Link Exchange Widget

Symbiostock Maps

In the recent months Symbiostock Forums have been buzzing with independent artists trying to collaborate and brainstorm ways of supporting each other through mutually beneficial link exchange agreements. Creating niche specific link exchange partnerships can be a valuable way of attracting visitors to sites, both through direct traffic exchange and by triggering search engines.

However, creating a link exchange system isn’t always easy to keep track of and requires ongoing monitoring and maintenance. Tasks such as checking your partnered sites to ensure that your links are still there, or checking whether the sites you’re linking to are still online and implementing updates are ongoing aspects of link exchanges that are time consuming and not much fun to do – because most of us would rather spend that energy working on our creative projects.

And so we decided to create the Symzio Link Exchange Widget – a fully automated link exchange system that effortlessly sets up a link exchange area on any page, or section, of your website. Some of the advanced features of the widget include:

  • Auto checking contributor sites to make sure they are online. Sites that go offline are automatically excluded so that there are no ‘dead’ links.
  • Only includes sites that also display the widget.
  • Dynamically altering the rank order in which sites are displayed sites based on how much each individual site contributes to the link exchange program. The widget uses advanced mechanisms to calculate how much each site is promoting the Symzio Link Exchange Widget – sites providing greater support are listed higher on the page and this is automatically updated.
  • The widget does not output Javascript; it outputs HTML which can be indexed by search engines and contains hard coded links to encourage SEO.
  • Will only display contributors who have been with Symzio for at least 1 month.

Each contributor’s listing will source information directly from their Symzio public profile, including:

  • The contributor’s business name
  • Description with their profile image
  • Link to their independent website
  • Link to their Symzio contributor profile
  • Links to Facebook & Twitter pages

Although there will be a default minimum number of listings displayed, you will be able to set how many contributors you want to list on your link exchange area.

The Symzio Link Exchange Widget will become available soon and will be bundled with the base Symbiostock Pro plugin.

As we continue to band together as a proactive community of independent artists, the greater our opportunity for success becomes. And with innovative tools such as this new widget we can easily keep up our momentum up and further growth of our movement!

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Symbiostock Anytype: Sell RAW Files Alongside JPEGS & more!

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Symbiostock Anytype is now available from the Symbiostock Store!

What is Symbiostock Anytype?
Symbiostock Anytype is an optional addon for Symbiostock Pro. Symbiostock Anytype requires Symbiostock Pro 3.3 and is not compatible with older versions of Pro.

What does Symbiostock Anytype do?
Symbiostock Anytype permits you to upload a file that you can associate to any product within Symbiostock to be served to customers upon purchase instead of the original uploaded media file. The file is sold through the same individual product page as the corresponding Symbioctock media product. The associated file can be any type of file, for example: RAW, ZIP, PDF and DOC files.

Why use Symbiostock Anytype?
Have you ever thought about selling a ZIP bundle that contains an image file and a model release document? Or a ZIP bundle with a vector file and a JPEG? How about selling RAW versions of your images? What a revolutionary idea?! These are just some of the most useful ways of utilizing Symbiostock Anytype.

You can also be creative and make image packs – create a four pack of Christmas pictures and sell them during the upcoming holiday season. And if you really want to think outside of the box, you could even sell PDF tutorials on how you created a particular image – of course you may not want to give away such trade secrets! But the point is, Symbiostock Anytype allows you to customize the downloads for each product listing in powerful new way.

What media product types can Symbiostock Anytype be used with?
You can use Symbiostock Anytype with any media type, be it videos, images, or vectors.

Symbiostock Anytype

How do you use Symbiostock Anytype?
For a detailed guide on how to use Symbiostock Anytype to create downloadable RAW files / a Packaged ZIP file for a vector / Image Packs, please see our documentation.

As a brief overview, the way to use Symbiostock Anytype starts with creating a new license using the usual license creation steps. Once you have the new license set up, you are required to specify an arbitrary ‘postfix’ in the ‘Arbitrate download’ field. This postfix is then used in naming the file that you which to serve (there is a specific syntax formula that must be used). Symbiostock Anytype looks for files with the specified postfix and associates it to the correlating product using the syntax formula. Once associated to a product and updated by the cron processor, the new license shows up on the product’s license options.

When the license is purchased, a download for the associated file is served to customers.

Is there a limit to the number of arbitrary download licenses you can create with Symbiostock Anytype?
No. You can have as many arbitrary download licenses as you want, even more than one per image.

How much does Symbiostock Anytype cost?
$29. This includes lifetime updates. You can grab Symbiostock Anytype from the Symbiostock Store.

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Announcing Symbiostock Anytype

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We’ve had a number of users ask about whether or not Symbiostock provides the option of serving non-standard downloadable files alongside regular Symbiostock products. For example, for any given media product, to provide your customer the option of purchasing a RAW version of the image on the same product page. Or the option of providing a ZIP bundle on the same product page. Currently, Symbiostock does not have any such facility.

BUT…

But, as long standing users probably know by now, our development team is a highly progressive one. So it follows suit that we try to provide high demand tools for our growing community to make your lives as independent artists that much easier. And with that being said, the good news is that very soon you’ll be able to grab Symbiostock Anytype – a new Symbiostock Pro addon that will allow you to do exactly what was described above. You’ll be able to sell RAW files through the same individual product page as the corresponding Symbiostock media product. Or sell a ZIP bundle that contains both an image file and a model release PDF file. Or a ZIP containing a vector file and a JPEG. You could even create image packs whereby you bundle as many images as you want within a single ZIP and sell it as a special offer. There are many possibilities.

Sept10-blog2b

Symbiostock Anytype will permit you to have as many arbitrary download licenses as you want, even more than one per media product. You will be able to use this with any media type, be it videos, images, or vectors.

Symbiostock Anytype will be part of a line of purchasable ‘addons’ created for Symbiostock Pro. Addon software such as this allows you to choose how extensive your Symbiostock Pro install becomes, and only extend features based on if/when you need it. Paid addons will also help to fund Symbiostock development and growth.

Symbiostock Anytype will be released on October 13th and will be available through the Symbiostock Store for $29.

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Symbiostock 3.3 Delivers Ease for Vector Artists & Various Improvements For All

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Symbiostock 3.3 update is out now!
This update contains various additions to make your lives easier and a major addition for our vector artists. Firstly, let’s go over some of significant additions that applies to everyone:

NEW: Customizable checkout notice for customers
You can add a custom message that will show up to customers on the ‘Checkout’ page and again on the ‘Order Received’ page after they have completed placing their order. This handy mechanism provides a great way to quickly and clearly inform your customers of what to expect next after placing an order. We’ve added default text that reads:

‘Please note that it may take a few minutes for your download to get processed. You will receive a download notification via e-mail when everything is ready.’

But you can change this to say whatever you like. Plus we provide a custom css class that you can use to stylize the way the message appears.

Your Checkout Message can be edited through Symbiostock Settings > Downloads

NEW: Increased security feature for CRON processor
We’ve added the ability for you to reset your secret cron processor code. This as an added security measure for unfortunate circumstances whereby you suspect your cron code is breached. This is a significant security upgrade to the previous version where you only had one permanent cron code.

‘Reset Cron Code’ can be found through Symbiostock Settings > System

IMPROVEMENT: Optimized Symbiostock variable checking
A number of systematic checking operations have been optimized to run more efficiently, bringing speed improvements to certain Symbiostock processors.

IMPROVEMENT: Easier setup for new users
We’ve disabled the Woocommerce startup wizard to make the Symbiostock installation process easier and more seamless. Store pages are now automatically generated behind the scenes.

NEW: Option for improved WP Emailing
A new option which delivers minor improvements to the way WordPress handles and delivers emails sent through it. This setting ensures that all mail sent via WordPress has a valid return-path in the headers, thereby reducing the chance of your mail being viewed as spam. This setting is also necessary for advanced server mail routing.

This setting is called ‘Add Return-Path fix for all emailing through WordPress’ and can be enabled/disabled through Symbiostock Settings > System

MAJOR ADDITIONS FOR VECTOR ARTISTS:
1) Batch Processing of Alternate JPEGs
Vector artist can now batch upload vector files with corresponding JPEG files, and Symbiostock Pro will automatically associate that JPEG and add it as the Alternate JPEG for that vector. Previously, vector artists had to manually upload Alternate JPEG’s one-by-one for each product – a tedious and time consuming process. Now you can FTP all your files and Symbiostock Pro takes care of it. Time saving efficiency!

2) Alternate JPEG Metadata Population
You can also set Symbiostock Pro to write and read metadata to/from Alternate JPEG’s. So if your Alternate JPEGs have metadata embedded, Symbiostock Pro will use that information to populate your vector product information such as title/description/keywords/GPS. The feature allows vector artists to, like photographers, do all their prep work before hand and just upload media for a one-step solution to getting all their stuff online and ready for sale.

Alternate JPEG settings can be enabled/disabled through Symbiostock Settings > Media

Remember, detailed guides on how to use all aspects of Symbiostock Pro are available through Symbiostock Documentation.

 

Love Symbiostock and all the amazing free software provided? Show your support by writing a review on WordPress about how Symbiostock benefits you. Or you can even buy a coffee for our wonderful development team!

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Updated Docs, Smooth Hosting and Great News for Vector Artists!

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It’s been almost 2 months since we launched Symbiostock Hosting and the overall consensus has been resoundingly positive. We’ve received encouraging feedback from users complimenting the simplicity and ease of the setup process, and many are impressed with the noticeably better speeds at which images are processed compared to other webhosts. If you’re thinking about trying out Symbiostock Hosting, checkout our free hosting migration offer and our 10% off coupon, usable on any hosting package:

Free Migrations

Coupon Code

We’ve rolled out some massive developments to Symbiostock plugins over the last several months. As a result of all the improvements and additions, all of our documentation pages have been updated to ensure you have an accurate reference guide in order to use Symbiostock plugins to their full capabilities:

Documentation

If we’ve missed something, be sure to let us know through our Forums.

And now onto some very good news for our vector artists!

If you’re a vector artist, very soon you will be able batch upload JPEG files associated with your corresponding vector files and Symbiostock Pro will automatically associate that JPEG and add it as the Alternate JPEG for that vector. This means you no longer have to manually upload Alternate JPEG’s on a product by product basis, you can simply FTP all your files and you’re done. Furthermore, you will be able to set Symbiostock Pro to use metadata from the Alternate JPEG to populate your original vector product’s information. Too easy! We will be releasing this new feature very soon, so stay tuned.

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Symbiostock Hosting Launch!

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www.symbiostock.com

After much anticipation and hard work the team here at Symbiostock are proud to announce the launch of our new Symbiostock Hosting platform! Time and time again we have found the number one cause of problems for Symbiostock users to be server side issues whereby web hosting providers fail to meet the technical needs of Symbiostock powered websites. Which is why we decided it was necessary for us to create a hosting solution to cater to the requirements of Symbiostock users. Symbiostock Hosting is a unique shared hosting environment that operates more like a VPS (virtual private server) provisioned with high CPU and memory resources necessary for the operation of standard Symbiostock sites.

Key Features of Symbiostock Hosting:

Quick Setup
Simplified CPanel Interface
ImageMagick
One-Click WordPress Installation
High CPU & Memory Allocation
Free SSL Certificates

Symbiostock Hosting is completely different to our previous hosting service and provides a true hosting environment whereby clients have full access to cPanel and FTP capabilities for website building. This means that although we’ve created Symbiostock Hosting for Symbiostock users, anyone can register a hosting account with us and host non-Symbiostock sites.

Symbiostock Hosting offers five different packages aimed to cater for the average small to reasonably large sized digital media stores, with the Economy plan starting at $8.99/mth USD. Packages are available on monthly or discounted yearly pricing plans and we currently offer a 10% off coupon that can be applied to any plan.

It is important for prospective hosting clients to understand that Symbiostock Hosting has a Limited Support Policy and does not provide free support for software related issues. Symbiostock Hosting places emphasis and resources towards providing a robust hosting platform and our support obligations revolve around maintaining the performance and integrity of our server hardware. We have created a Hosting Support Forum within Symbiostock Forums for hosting clients to post questions in order to receive community support and additionally offer a paid Support Request Service for software related issues.

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