It makes sorting and managing different types of content easy with the customization of the meta boxes to meet the specific needs of the content type. Quite simply this means no more unnecessary fields displayed at the back end when formulating a content post, no information overload, no confusion.

Just your content, just the way you like it.

Custom Post Types or Custom Content Types can represent any type of content you want. WordPress 3.0 ships with several default post types:

• Blog Posts
• Pages
• Attachments
• Revisions
• Nav Menus

But you can create a custom post type for any manner of content you need. Expand your mind, and think podcasts, video, property listings, gallery and products as different structured and defined content types.

Think of them as a way to create, edit, and store information in the same way as blog posts but with much more creative control.

All you need to do is fiddle with a bit of code to register or define your Custom Post Type and – BAMM! – it will automatically be added to the dashboard menu.

Our New Custom Post Types

Here at LightSpeed we’ve implemented Custom Post Types for our Packages and Portfolio sections.

Over the next few posts we’ll be taking a closer look at the content possibilities for Custom Post Types and their ease of use.

• Featured Option – Grow the Team / Recruit 5 friends – Button says “Recruit Friends” – grow the volunteer database
• Spread the word / Send a letter to the press – Button says “Speak Out”, submit to external blogs or simply social bookmarking
• Go door-to-door – Button says “Help Out” – upcoming events, create an event
• Attend an Event – Button says “Join”, schedule, manage, and promote events
• Make Phone Calls – Button says “Make Calls”
• Blogging – blog on the system
• Join a Group – discussion groups, launch user groups along issue or geographic lines, let users create and manage their own user groups,
• Featured content will target campaigns and programs to interested and motivated groups

We aim to motivate members to carry actions that matter with this social points system, the points per section will need to be displayed in the sidebar. The action center and online community tools set the standard for volunteers engagement and participatory content. This powerful suite of community content generation and social networking tools facilitate a range of real-time person-to-person activities, from user profiles to blogs to online forums, that will leave your site visitors with the feeling that your online community is richly alive with content and commitment.

In closing

We need drive people to engage with the system. An action center helps people to find the tools available on the system… Feedback most welcome!

We are busy creating social points system with the aim to allow users to accumulate community karma by participating online. The aim is  manage the point incentives to ensure that as many users as possible get involved and stay involved, taking actions that will help move you toward policy targets or online content goals.

Points are earned each time a user visits and passes time on the site. They will be redeemed for merchandise applicable to the network. We need to kick the program off formally and stimulate new membership. Existing users that recruit a friend or family member.

We are creating a Dashboard or Action Center to drive user interaction with the system. All actions will earn points for the user, but some actions will be weighted more heavily and therefore will earn more points. The Action Center or Dashboard will focus some features key to campaign, each with a “Featured” item section:

• Recruit a Friend – grow the volunteer database
• Events – upcoming events, create an event
• Spread the Word – social bookmarking, email newspapers, submit to external blogs
• Make phone calls
• Go-door-to-door
• Blogging – blog on the system

Our aim is to grow the userbase and provide viral tools to spread the word about the campaign’s message further than just the network. Feedback would be great!