May 25
WordPress is an easy to use, free platform to build your business. WordPress manages your site’s content, that is why it is called a content management system.
Here are some everyday reasons to use WordPress to increase your business visibility.
1. Flexibility – WordPress themes are flexible and can be customized to your personality, niche and products. Even better, you can change wordpress themes very quickly and easily. With a simple click of a button WordPress moves your content to the new theme for you.
2. Plugins For All Occassions – You can find plugins for just about anything you want to do with a website or blog. Popular plugins include contact forms, site statistics, search engine optimization, and photo resources. WordPress also has a plugin to make your site vivible on smartphones.
3. Pagination – Back in the early days of blogging, blogs appeared as online diaries with one post following the next and comments intermixed between. With WordPress you can actually create pages to separate your material or to provide additional information. You can create additional pages such as ‘Contact Me’, or ‘About Me’ pages. This functionality also makes WordPress the perfect platform for businesses, not just bloggers!
4. Performance – Believe it or not, not every blogger is an expert at web design. Creating your own website or presence can be a daunting task for anyone. WordPress provides easy to use functionality with a built in dashboard to help manage your sight. Also, because of its popularity WordPress has many resources available to their users including online forums, help references, and support teams.
Want to save yourself the work and get your blogsite installed, created and customized so you can just get going?
Contact me…..I can help.
May 06
Did you know there was a MarketingProfs B2B Forum held in Boston. The event brought together B2B marketers from all industries to share best practices and case studies. Most of the content at this year’s conference focused on online marketing, particularly social media. HubSpot highlighted 27 Marketing Lessons you should know.
Number 19 caught my eye:
20% of searches done in Google every day have never been done before.
I thought this is a great opportunity to create relevant content about your business even if people aren’t looking for it yet.
Jan 15
Just read this great post from AWEBER. It tells you how to engage your audience with fun activites.They keep your audience engaged and looking forward to your emails -which translate into more of your emails being opened. Read the article for yourself .Read the article for yourself.
Jan 14
BlogBooker turns blogs into PDF Books
Just found this amazing tool and it is free. It takes your blog posts and creates them into pdf doc. What a great way to archive your work. You can print your BlogBook and make it real, read it more comfortably or share it with friends, publish it …even your images are embed. What a fast easy way to create an ebook!
Is BlogBooker a tool you could use in your business? Please comment
Jan 12
Four Mobile Marketing Tools your business needs to reach your Mobile Audience
1. Text Messaging / SMS
So many people are doing text messaging – 123 million of us in the US and 3 billion of us worldwide. It is only natural that this type of communication would be used for businesses to attract an audience.
The most common format of text messaging as a marketing tool is to use mobile coupons-offering a discount or special offer via text message. But text messaging can and should be so much more than just coupons.
Alerts, text clubs, product/service information, sending mobile site links, interactive voting, contests, text-to-donate are just a sampling of the many uses of text messaging.
2.Mobile-Friendly Websites
Over 50 million people in the US are going online with their phones and they are expecting to get websites that work on their phone. They want to find what they need quickly and easily and get back to whatever it is they were doing. The mobile web experience is not about “browsing” it is about “finding.”
If you are not sure if your company site is mobile friendly, just go to it on your mobile phone. Preferably access it from more than one type of phone so you can see how differently it works for different people based on the phone they are using.
3.Mobile Advertising
Much the same as there is banner advertising on the desktop version of the Internet, there are also banner ads on mobile sites. Google made news recently by buying AdMob, one of the leading mobile display ad networks, and it is safe to say that mobile display (or banner) advertising will be a much more used tool in marketing now.
Additionally there is pay per click advertising which is aligned with mobile search. A consumer searching for something their phone will see search results ads showing along with the organic listings they find. Naturally, Google is a huge player in this space as well with their Google Mobile Adwords program.
4.Mobile Email
Each day millions of people check their email on their phone. Whether the businesses sending emails to these people intended to be mobile marketing or not, they most certainly are. Once a person is communicating and engaging with you on their mobile device you are doing mobile marketing.
Every email that is sent must be easily readable on a mobile device or become so within one click. People are deluged by email and it is not likely that they will look at your email twice. If the first opportunity to see it comes on their mobile, it darn well better work because you will not get a second chance when they are on their desktop later.
If you need help with any of these mobile marketing tools I am here to help you. Contact me.
Jan 12
Autoresponders are one of the most popular tools used on the Internet, as they will enable you to put a portion of your business on auto-pilot helping you build relationships with subscribers starting the moment they sign up.
Autoresponders can welcome new subscribers, educate them about your products, and drive them back to your website – without you lifting a finger.
Plus, with our unique Autoresponder Send Windows, you’ll reach subscribers during the days and times you know work best for them!
Not only do they automate the daily task of manually replying to requests for information, but they also provide instant gratification for the recipient.
When selecting an autoresponder service, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration to ensure maximum performance.
• Personalized responses – This makes the recipient feel that the message was sent specifically to them.
• Automatic follow ups – Studies have shown it may take up to seven contacts before closing a sale.
• Unlimited text length – If you are inhibited by the amount of text your autoresponder may contain, you may be forced to revise a successful sales letter, ultimately costing you business.
• Free unlimited updating – It is imperative to provide your customers with accurate, up to date information on your products and services.
• Automatic notification – You must have the ability to track your ad’s performance. You should be instantly informed each time someone requests your information.
Autoresponders are an absolute essential part of developing a successful Internet business. The more you can automate your tasks, the more time you’ll have for more important things, such as making more sales.
The one I recommend is Aweber. They have an extensive libarary of How-to- Videos and articles to help you create a successfull business. They also offer live chat help.
Jan 11
Blog Design Tips
I often get questions regarding Blog Design. It has been noticed that some very ugly sites generate massive traffic flow. Why? Because Content is King. Google doesn’t look at your design. And many visitors will often read your content from their favorite RSS reader so they don’t even see your Blog Design.
So really, how important is Blog Design for your business?
Does it affect your traffic? Does it affect your subscriber base? Does anyone care?
In short – Yes!
Here’s a few observations I have made while surfing the web checking out Business Blog Design
I should also mention that I’m not even talking about things like floating angels, snowflakes that follow my cursor or background colors that automatically change every 30 seconds thanks to the wonders of javascript (for these sites I’ll stay around only long enough to laugh for a bit, then surf elsewhere). The following is a reference for bloggers who are actually trying to succeed online but may be using their blogs default template or a poorly designed alternative.
1. The search engines don’t care if your site looks any good, but I do as a protentianal customer and you’re writing for me not Google. If you’re not writing for me then I’m not coming back anyway.
2. It’s about perceived value. If I hit your site and see you’ve clearly put 0 effort into your design, I’ll automatically question how much time you’ve put into your message. I may still read your post depending on how I arrived, but I’ll be reading with a filter that didn’t need to be there in the first place.
3. There’s no shortage of competition out there. So unless you happen to be the # 1 voice in your industry and provide indispensable information with every post, which is unlikely, give me a reason to stay, not a reason to leave.
4. If you break new design ground you may generate a temporary buzz but if you have nothing to say your creative wonder of a blog isn’t going to convince me to come back a second time.
5. If your site uses yellow, red, pink or other light font colors I can’t read it… I’m partially color-blind and you just lost me.
6. Your job as a blogger is to keep people coming back to the SITE. You can’t have a conversation if your readers stay at arms length so give them a friendly place to come back to!
7. There’s something to be said for image. You don’t go to a dentist with discolored, cracked teeth or a chiropractor who sports a cane and you generally wouldn’t buy from a sales man dressed in a speedo! People are coming to your blog with certain expectations, understanding those expectations and exceeding them is better than the alternative.
8. Don’t design for your tastes (unless you’re an historically proven trendsetter). Let me put that another way: I don’t care that you really like yellow and black; the colors of wasps, bees and danger signs don’t belong in large quantities on your blog template!
9. This won’t apply to all blogs, but I read a large sampling of business related blogs and this one is for those bloggers. If your blog template NEVER changes, you obviously aren’t trying new things or testing the results and I’m going to question your online business savvy.
10. Having a great looking blog doesn’t mean you need to break the bank hiring a designer. A blog platform like WordPress offers free templates that can be customized to suite your Company Brand.
A lack of a unique and trendy Blog design shouldn’t hold you back from starting a blog. At the end of the day, it’s your message that brings people in, not your design (unless you are a blog about design). That being said, a sleek design should be at the top of your ‘To Do’ list once you get the ball rolling!
A blog’s template should always serve to Enhance the presentation of your content and never overshadow it, and what’s really important in a Blog template is speed, accessibility and clarity.
My preference for wordpress templates is StudioPress. StudioPress makes WordPress templates that are functional and stylish.
Do you have any great tips that I haven’t covered here? Or do you disagree with any of my advice? Let me know by leaving a comment!
Jan 04
Questions: Why do I need in a Hosting Plan
Any product or service that requires storage or access on the internet will use the services of a web hosting company .
If you are planning to have your business online the first thing you will face is: Who will host your websites?
I find it more practical and time saving to find a Hosting company that will also register my Domain Name. If you pick a Hosting Company that does not register domain names then you have the added steps of registering the domain name yourself and then pointing your domain name to your hosting server.
The four services I look for in a Hosting Company are:
1. Hosting Company should provide free Domain registration and automatic yearly renewal of your domain name.
2. Allow you to host unlimited domains. If you are serious about your business on the Internet then you must be aware of the fact that you will sooner or later need to launch more websites to expand your business to high levels. Therefore it is important to take this point into consideration where you will remove the burden of purchasing additional webhosting accounts to host the new websites in the future.
3. 24/7 Customer Support. This is very important as things go wrong at odd times of the day and night and you want to be able to connect with a support person quickly. Having a live support chat feature or support number to call is paramount in keeping your business up and running.
4. E-commerce capabilites, unlimited email accounts, unlimited MY SQL databases are other features that are essential for your business website. Each blog platform needs its own MY SQL database so if your web hosting company allows only one MY SQL database you are limited to having one blog or content management system on this account.
The hosting Company I found with all these features is a Canadian Hosting Company which also happens to use green technology.
Host Papa
Nov 30
When people like you, they naturally want to interact with you, connect with you, and support you.
The more people see you, the more they will tend to like you.
They become familiar and comfortable with you. It is important to build visibility with your target market.
To be likeable in social media, it’s important to be open about the thoughts and beliefs which best support your brand. You can accomplish this by: sharing knowledge
insight
tools
and information which helps your audience know you
When they feel like they know you, they will decide more easily to like you. It is easier to like a person who is modest about their success, who has character, and who follows through on their promises.
Ask youself: How likeable am I now? What could I do to become even more well liked with my target audience?
Nov 02
You no doubt have heard that Microsoft has launched a new operating system Windows 7. I am very leery of upgrading to Windows 7. I have Windows XP and find this OS just fine. I refused to upgrade or get Vista as I didn’t like the changes and found Vista to be slow loading and the interface frustrating.
XP has its faults, but it works like an operating system should – It allows the user to interact with their hardware. Vista assumes you are a cretin and constantly nags you with endless annoying prompts. I don’t want several dialogues asking permission to do what i just told it to.
I’m not resistant to change, but change should be positive and advance the technology – I don’t see much of that with Vista or Windows 7. Over the past few days I have been told by friends and clients of undue frustration with Windows 7 and not being able to upgrade Vista to Windows 7. Their computers crash and they can not load Windows 7 and in some cases Vista OS has been wiped off the harddrive rendering their computer useless.
If you have problems with Windows 7 or if you have upgraded successfully, I sure would like to hear from you. Please leave a comment.
