Connecting you to your dealer base –

Instantly, easily, effectively.

You’ve heard about Imagine Retailer’s revolutionary new
Web Store that connects dealers to the customer – it’s a fast,
easy and affordable online selling solution.

Imagine Retailer also brings Ashley Associates and Marketing

Specialists the opportunity to connect to your dealers – it’s a
fast, easy and affordable online selling solution.

How affordable?
It’s free.

If you had to pay for the custom design and features of this
site, it would cost well over $9,000 and it take 6-8 weeks to
implement. We can have you online in as little as 2 weeks at
no cost.

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Why is it free and fast?

It’s free because we want to familiarize you with the quantity

and quality of service you and your dealers will receive when
choosing Webstores and services from Imagine Retailer.

It’s fast because the design and features have already been
developed with the input of many of your peers to ensure
it’s ready-made for your success. All you have to do is plug in
your own information.

It’s also easy.

We’ll show you how.

Your site’s domain will be www.YourTerritory.imagineretailer.com1

Your Territory Name: _______________________________________

Will you show competitor’s products?

 Yes: $299/month
 No: no monthly cost

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Private domain name hosting is available for $300/year plus $75/hour for any
necessary maintenance and training after site launch. Custom site design is
available starting at $6,000.

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User Passwords
To protect confidential information from customers and/or competitors,
you may choose to password protect all or part of your site.

Choose one:
 Protect entire site
Desired Username: __________________________________
Desired Password: ___________________________________
Note: all users will have the same password

 Protect individual articles

Desired Username: __________________________________
Desired Password: ___________________________________

 No password needed, but make the site invisible to the search

engines so it’s hard for consumers and competitors to find but
easy for dealers to access

 No password needed

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Social Follow
This button, when inserted into the sidebar of your site, links visitors to
all your Social Networking profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and many more.

 Do not include Social Follow on my site

OR

 Yes, I want to include the Social Follow button

Please go to www.socialfollow.com and Sign Up
When you Sign Up, please follow the directions to create your
button and add your social profiles
o Visit www.imagineretailer.com/social-follow for
instructions
o We will take care of installing the button on your
website.

Whenever you create a new social profile, add it to your Social Follow
account. The button on your website will be updated automatically.

My Social Follow login information:

Email address: _____________________________________________

Password: ________________________________________________

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Dashboard
Your site is built on the WordPress platform.

Here is the link to your website’s DASHBOARD:

http://_____________________.imagineretailer.com/wp-admin

User name: _________________________________________

Password: __________________________________________

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Additional Training
Generally, if a field or option has been skipped in this training, then you
don’t need to use it or know it. Please contact us if you have a question
about a feature for which you have not been trained. Here are some
other helpful links:
 http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons
 http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts

How To Create a New Post

Your website is made up different articles or stories, called POSTS. To
add a new Post, click POSTS > ADD NEW

Title
The reader should understand what the article is about based on the
title. Good titles make the reader want to learn more: “How to…” or “5
Reasons…” or “Why You Should…”

Your Title also makes the post searchable. This is especially important
for posts that include only an embedded document (which is not
searchable).

Avoid using the same title twice as that will cause problems. You can
use commas, apostrophes, quotes, hyphens, dashes, and other typical
symbols in the post

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Information Sources
Never, ever, ever plagiarize someone else’s work. That’s rude and
illegal. Feel free to quote other sources and link to other sources, but
always give proper credit where credit is due.

It’s actually quite nice for your website to be the one-stop-shop for all
your industry news, so using other sources is not a bad thing. Just give
them credit.

Post Editing Area

The big blank box where you type is called the post editing area or RTE
(Rich Text Editor). WordPress uses the most basic little word processor
you can imagine. You won’t be using fancy fonts, lots of colors and
backgrounds here. Keep it simple and you’ll be happy!

You will use both the Visual and the HTML views to compose your posts.
Even in the Visual mode, WordPress is automatically converting your
text to HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the predominant language
for web pages. There’s lots going on behind the scenes!

Show the Kitchen Sink to see all your text editing options

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Formatting Text
Your formatting options are limited. Don’t try to get too fancy. The
easiest way to learn the formatting toolbox is experimentation.

Microsoft Word uses its own version of HTML code and it will MESS UP
a WordPress post!
To paste text from Word, you have to strip all the formatting by
using the COPY FROM WORD icon.

Just remember, there’s a whole lot of HTML going on behind the scenes.
What you see is not always what you get. Don’t get frustrated!

Use enough formatting to make your post easy to read, but not so much
that it looks like a cartoon.

Use PARAGRAPH and HEADINGS to set your text apart.

The QUOTE, BULLETS AND NUMBERED lists are also handy.

These styles have been preformatted for your website:

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Inserting a Hyperlink
Hyperlinks are underlined words that take the reader to other pages in
your site or other websites altogether.

Old link technique: Click here to learn more!

New link language: Here’s how this Hook worked for one dealer!

Copy the URL where you want the customer to go

o Example: http://www.imagineretailer.com/contact-us/
o For a relative link (a link to a page in your own site), you only
need everything after the .com.
o Example: /contact-us
Type the text into your post (Example: “Contact us for details.”)
Select the text
Click the CHAIN ICON on the toolbar
Paste the link (right-mouse-click PASTE or Ctrl+V)
Click INSERT
To remove the link, select the text again and click the BROKEN
CHAIN icon

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Picture Basics
People often don't have the patience to wait through long web page
loads, so keeping your file sizes low speeds up your web page access
times. Use a free photo editing site like www.picnik.com to resize your
images. Depending upon your use of the images on your site, you may
have to experiment with this to get the right ratio that keeps the
resolution quality good while maintaining a small file size.
The size and quality of an image for use on a web page is determined by
a variety of things.
 Physical Size: how much "space" will the image occupy on a
web page. If the image is too big, it will push the layout of your
web page around, messing up your design.
 File Size: This is the size of the file on your hard drive or server.
File size dictates the time it takes to load your page.
 Resolution: The resolution of the image dictates its clarity. The
higher the resolution, though, the larger the file size, so you
have to make a compromise between quality and file size.
 File Type: There are basically 3 image types popularly found on
the Internet – JPG, GIF and PNG. If you aren't sure which file
type is best for a particular image, try saving the image in more
than one type and comparing the file sizes. Using the right type
can make a big difference!
o Just use JPG! This format always works.

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Inserting Pictures
Pictures must be saved to your computer before you can insert them
into a post. To save a picture from a website, right-mouse-click over the
image then click “Save Image As.” Since you don’t need a bunch of
pictures junking up your computer, save them to your Desktop where
you can find and delete them easily.

Upload/Insert > Add an Image

 Choose the files to upload from your computer (sometimes the
BROWSER UPLOADER works better for me). Or, click the MEDIA
LIBRARY tab to use files you’ve already uploaded.
 Change the title. The user will see the title when they hover
their mouse over the image, so make it logical
 If you enter a caption, the image will have a nice frame with the
caption under the image
 There are 4 basic ways the text can wrap around your image,
called the ALIGNMENT: None, Left, Center and Right.
Experiment with each of these to see how they work.
 Choose the SIZE for the image. Again, you will learn by
experimentation how these work.
 Click INSERT INTO POST
 Once the image is inserted in the post, click the image then click
the EDIT IMAGE button to resize it or change the size,
alignment, title and caption
 Click the red circle to delete the image from your post

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Uploading a file directly to your Media Center
Documents marked “private” on Scribd cannot be saved to your visitors’
computer. However, there are many times when you might want to give
your visitors the ability to download a document such as an advertising
calculator or back office checklist.

You can either make the document PUBLIC on Scribd, or upload the
media directly to your website so users can download it, like this:

1. Click MEDIA > ADD NEW

2. Follow the directions to upload a file
3. After the file has uploaded, click the name of the file
4. Select the entire FILE URL and press CTRL+C to copy it
5. Next, create a link to the media in a post. Type the link text.
a. Example: “Click here to download the spreadsheet.”
6. Select the text and click the INSERT/EDIT LINK icon
7. Press CTRL+V to paste the media link

When the Post is published, visitors to your website will be able to click
the link and download the file. Keep in mind that you can still embed
the document so visitors can view or print it.

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 Uploading Videos to blip.tv
To use videos you’ve filmed yourself, first upload the video to
www.blip.tv. This is a free site that ensures your video is web-
compatible and easy to view by all website visitors.

1. Create a free account at www.blip.tv and sign in

 User name: _________________________________________
 Password: __________________________________________
2. Click UPLOAD > WEB UPLOAD
3. Click BROWSE, find the file and click OPEN
4. Click PROCEED TO STEP 2
5. Enter a TITLE and DESCRIPTION
6. Click PUBLISH and wait for the file to be uploaded and converted
7. Select the video and click the share button:

8. Click the EMBED tab then click COPY EMBED CODE

9. Switch to the new Post in the WordPress tab
10. Click the HTML tab
11. Place your cursor at the end of the gobbledygook code and press
ENTER to move to a new line
12. Press Ctrl+V to PASTE the video code

In the VISUAL tab you will see a yellow box that represents the video
player. Press PREVIEW to see the video.

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 Uploading documents to Scribd
Scribd (rhymes with “cribbed”) is a free document-sharing website.
Scribd allows you to continue to use the file formats you're familiar with
(like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as pdf’s) and embed
them on your site.

You can make files PRIVATE on Scribd. Private documents can only be
viewed by people you give the exact URL to, and cannot be searched for
or found by search engines or Scribd's own search. Your website visitors
cannot download private files and save them to their computers.

1. Create a free account at www.scribd.com and sign in

 User name: _________________________________________
 Password: __________________________________________
2. Click UPLOAD and follow the directions to upload your files
3. Hover over your Username in the top right and click My Documents
to see a list of all your files.
 Note: Use GRID VIEW to see more information about each file.
4. Click SHARE

5. Click Copy

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6. Switch to the new Post in the WordPress tab
7. Click the HTML tab
8. Place your cursor at the end of the gobbledygook code and press
ENTER to move to a new line
9. Press Ctrl+V to PASTE the Scribd document code

In the VISUAL tab you will see a yellow box that represents the
document. Press PREVIEW to see the document.

Note: Scribd automatically inserts a link to the document, but if you’ve

made the document private the link is useless. Remove the link by
switching back to the VISUAL tab and deleting the document name
above the yellow box.

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Now that you’ve written your Post, it’s time to Publish
it to your website:

Save
Allows you to save your post as a draft / pending review rather than
immediately publishing it. To return to your drafts later, visit Posts - Edit
in the menu bar, then select your post from the list.

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Preview
Allows you to see how your post will look before officially publishing it.
Don’t be surprised if what you type isn’t always what appears on the
published page. Blame this on HTML.

Publish
Publishing a post will display it on your website. The main states are:
 Published: the post has been published on your blog for all to see
 Pending Review: the draft is waiting for review by an editor prior to
publication
 Draft: the post has not been published and remains a draft for you
to edit

To schedule a post for publication on a future time or date, click "Edit"

in the Publish area next to the words "Publish immediately." Change the
settings to the desired time and date. You must also hit the "Publish"
button when you have completed the post for the post to be published
at the desired time and date. This is a great way to get ahead of the
game and get some extra posts ready to go!

Your most recent Posts will display first on your site. You can rearrange
the order of the Posts by changing the Published date.

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Categories
Each Post is given a CATEGORY that determines the PAGE where it will
appear on your site.
 You can use more than one Category for a Post; these Posts will
appear on multiple Pages.
 You can add Sub-categories at any time

Here is the list of categories and the related page:

Post Category Website Page

Ashley Corporate Ashley Corp. Information (accessed from
Information the header or sidebar)
Consumers’ Choices (accessed from HOME
Consumers' Choice
or sidebar)
Featured Products (accessed from HOME
Featured Products
or sidebar)
Hook Book Hook Book
Industry Articles Industry Articles
Marketing Tools Marketing Tools
Events Marketing Tools
Management Tools Marketing Tools
Market News Marketing Tools
Promotions Marketing Tools
Selling Tools Marketing Tools
GMROI Marketing Tools
Websites Marketing Tools
Social Marketing Marketing Tools
New Store Concepts New Store Concepts
Product Updates Product Updates
Care & Quality Product Updates
Discontinued Products Product Updates

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Other Fields:

Discussion
Options to enable interactivity and notification of your posts.
 Allow Comments on this post: unchecked, no one can post
comments to this particular post
 Allow trackbacks and pingbacks on this post. unchecked, no
one can post pingbacks or trackbacks to this particular post.
Trackbacks and pingbacks are confusing. Just leave the box
checked.

Post Author
Let your staff write articles. You can create user profiles for different
writers so their fans can see everything they’ve written in one place.
Authorship builds credibility and a nice fan base.

Users > Add New

Change ROLE to AUTHOR

You do NOT have to teach Authors how to post articles to the website;
you can still do this for them. If you do teach Authors how to post
articles, they can have limited access to the site; you will have the
opportunity to approve anything they write before it’s posted.

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More Best Practices
 Use Paragraphs: No one likes to read writing that never pauses
for a line break. To break your writing up into paragraphs, use
double spaces between your paragraphs.
 Using Headings: If you are writing long posts, break up the
sections by using headings, small titles to highlight a change of
subject.
 Spell Check and Proof: Some serious writers will write their
posts in a text editor (like Microsoft Word) with spell check,
check all the spelling and proof it thoroughly before copying and
pasting into WordPress.
 Think before you post: Ranting on blogs is commonplace today,
but take a moment and think about what you are writing.
Remember, once it is out there, it can be seen by many and
crawled by search engines; and taking things back is harder
once it is public. Take a moment to read what you've written
before hitting the Publish button. When you are ready, share it
with the world.
 Make use of comments: Comments let people share their ideas.
Sometimes, they might not be good, but you can delete, edit
and unapproved such people. Also, give your people a place to
contact you in private if they want to write to you.
 Use pictures and videos: They make the pages colorful and
viewers get to see a little of your part of the world. They feel
connected.

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Calendar
Click CALENDAR on the side menu to manage your events or categories.

Enter or select the following:

Event Title
Event Description (optional)
Event Category (manage from Calendar > Manage Categories)
Event Link (optional – enter a URL to an appropriate website)
Start and End Date: yyyy-mm-dd format or click SELECT DATE
Time (optional)
Recurrence (optional)

Click SAVE to save the event

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Subscribe2
Subscribe2 is a free little plugin we installed on your website so visitors
can subscribe to your blog. When Subscribe2 is activated, subscribers
will automatically receive an email whenever you post a new article.

Subscribe2 not a replacement for meatier email marketing programs. It

does not collect robust customer data, does not identify “bad” email
addresses and does not provide any reporting. However, it is a quick,
easy and free way to keep in touch with your subscribers.

To see your list of Subscribers, click TOOLS > SUBSCRIBERS

 You can copy names from your operating system or other list into
Subscribe2. You can also export your list of Subscribe2 subscribers
into a CSV file (this is just a stripped-down spreadsheet).

Each time you PUBLISH a POST, your Subscribers will receive an email.
You can DISABLE sending for a Post by checking this box at the bottom
of a new Post:

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