- Traditional websites were effectively brochures on the web. They looked nice, had a certain amount of information but were static. By contrast a WordPress Website and Blog is a living thing. It is designed from the ground up to radiate ‘I’m here!’ to the search engines, social media sites and blogosphere. It’s a connected technology that communicates with the world.
- WordPress has unlimited capacity to grow. Unlike traditional websites, WordPress sits on top of a database (MySQL) which handles the web pages and posts, organizes and collates the images, videos, brochures and documents. It is highly extensible through themes and plugins.There is a development community out there that create add-ons to WordPress enabling it to undertake just about any task. WordPress is almost infinitely expandable and extendable. You’ll never outgrow it!
- WordPress lives and breathes Search Engine Optimization. Every page and blog post you create with WordPress is designed to attract attention.The URLs (page addresses) are editable to provide descriptions of the content on the page. Where you call a page ‘About Us’, your URL can read
‘wordpress-training-consulting-development-blog-writing-seattle’;
which offers a stickier phrase for the search engines to catch hold of.
Search engines cannot read what is in an image so WordPress gives you many ways to describe an image. You can create a caption, a pop-up message and a full description so your images become part of the search engine optimized content just as much as your posts themselves.
You can add keywords and tags to posts and articles, and those tags get indexed by Google as well as the article title (long description as mentioned above) and content.
You can create excerpts of your pages and posts. These are summaries that are picked up by the search engines, are easy to enter and very effective. The short answer is that WordPress is a great environment if you want your content to be found.
- WordPress is a Content Management System where you as a developer, administrator or author can make fast updates to the site. No longer will you have to wait for your developer or Web Master to change a picture, update some prices or post a new article. All of that can be done by you.
- Dynamic Content, Dynamic Updates, Dynamic Home Page. WordPress can pull in content from different places, feeds and resources; combining it all onto your page or post. Pages and posts can be scheduled to appear when and where you want them to that your website is always fresh and alive. Search engines begin to ignore static sites. There is nothing static about WordPress.
- WordPress and Niche Marketing. Chris Anderson’s book ‘The Long Tail’ revealed how niche marketing has become main stream. Through the unlimited capacity of the Internet… digital marketing and distribution has encouraged niche markets to thrive.The main body of sales comprises the best sellers. The major retail stores have to hold inventory that has to sell in numbers to justify the cost of the ‘shelf space’ Therefore the market has traditionally limited itself to a relatively restricted number of products; effectively ‘The Hot 100’, The blockbuster, The top 10,000 book titles etc. But that has all changed. What ‘The Long Tail’ revealed is that the market is much bigger and more varied than people imagined. As ‘search’ became more effective than advertising and display, niche products could be offered and found as easily as the latest Lady Gaga CD. Although individually, sales down the far end of ‘The Long Tail’ may only be in single digits, the combined sales of all of these niches actually rivals that of the best sellers. The Long Tail is a market of niche products and we can all be part of it.
WordPress is the perfect vehicle to develop and promote niche products. Niche products by their very nature are targeted to small groups. These groups seek out products and services that are unavailable in local stores but are available online. And nowadays, the more unique the product, the less competition for search engine key words and phrases.
If you have a niche product, a WordPress website and blog is the perfect vehicle to ‘open shop’ to a market searching for you. Product descriptions, testimonials, blog posts and articles, embedded videos and case studies are all a few clicks away. Every time a new article or product is posted, the blogosphere and search engines will be ‘pinged’ and the market will grow.
- WordPress integrates with Social Media. WordPress is designed to get you up and running fast. Once you have your products and services on your WordPress website, visitors can interact with you!If you post an article or case study, visitors can leave comments or questions.
Customer Service becomes transparent and interactive as customers openly discuss good or bad service and you can respond quickly, honestly and directly.Social Media links and tags can be incorporated into your posts which makes it just a simple click for a visitor to bookmark an article or offer… or to share that offer with his/her Facebook friends. The effectiveness of the Social Media Links cannot be over emphasized. Let’s say you post a case study on how your business resolved a problem for one of your clients. Soon after someone else has a similar problem and searches a solution. Your case study pops up and they call you… but not only that; they also share it on their Facebook and click the Twitter link. That Twitter link gets shared with their 120 followers, a few of whom ReTweet the link to their combined 10,000 followers.
Because WordPress makes it so easy to share and integrate with other social media sites, your message can get out there quicker and further than you ever dreamed possible.
- The WordPress Dashboard. Developing a traditional website can be a tricky business. You need to learn a system like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. You have to know how HTML and FTP works. But the WordPress dashboard presents you with every tool you need to create an effective website and blog in a clean and intuitive manner without having to be a web developer.The Dashboard features:
a. Blog Posts. Using the in-built text editor (essentially a word processor with full formatting) you can create posts and articles and allocate them to a sophisticated set of relational categories.
b. Media. WordPress makes it a breeze to upload images, brochures, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations and more to its media library. It automatically files these away giving total access for inclusion in your websites and blogs.
c. Links. Here you can create links to all of your favorite sites or indeed pages within your own site.
d. Pages. WordPress Pages are created the same way as Posts but are more like traditional web pages; although they have the bonus of Parent/Child relationships and dynamic content.
e. Comments. Here you can monitor and moderate and respond to the comments visitors have made on your site.
f. Appearance. Comprises a set of tools to change, update and configure the appearance of your side including themes, widgets and more.
g. Plugins. There are thousands of plugins that have been developed to extend the features of WordPress. These range from simple slide show presentations, contact forms, photo galleries, statistic packages right through to highly sophisticated eCommerce systems.
h. Users. WordPress is multi-user and here you can create new users with varying degrees of access and security.
i. Tools. A set of tools including the facility to import and export your whole WordPress site along with images, video and other content
j. Settings. A complete set of tools to configure your site for the outside world.
- The Value of FREE. Not only is it one of the best web development and blogging systems available on the planet at any price but being free it allows you to experiment and learn without risk. It allows you to interact and develop without the worry of cost. The value of free extends way beyond monetary value. It empowers you to express yourself in an open and expansive way.
- Blogging beats Advertising and WordPress excels at blogging. You can unleash your creative self and if what you have to say is worth hearing, the world will find you and listen.
10 Reasons why WordPress is your Personal Publicity Machine
The Value of FREE
There is a lot of confusion over social media networking/marketing. If you partake, are you networking or marketing? Is Twitter a social media networking site for individuals and social groups or is it used by businesses for marketing. The same goes for Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Biznik.
The answer is yes to everything. All of these sites are used and abused by individuals, businesses, pressure groups, politicians and more. As a tool becomes available it gets used and when it’s ‘free’ it gets used by a lot of people… as it should.
To say ‘No Business Should Be Involved in Online Social Networking’ is just plain wrong. It should be used in combination with social media marketing. Biznik (a business oriented social media site) is a prime example of how to combine social media networking WITH social media marketing.
Biznik has the mix of networking and marketing in balance. Businesses can shamelessly promote and market their latest offerings while benefitting from the SEO that is inherent in the system. They can write articles that increase the awareness and understanding of the business environment they inhabit. It is right for businesses to be involved in both social media marketing and networking. Done right, networking instills trust.
Biznik members (both paying and free) have the opportunity to evaluate other members’ products and services through their promotions and profiles; as well as getting an understanding of the ‘person’ behind the business through their articles and posts. The benefit extends outside of Biznik too. You don’t have to be a member to find a product or service that is on offer through the Biznik environment. Just go to Google/Yahoo/Bing and search for what you’re looking for. If a Biznik member has written about it in an article, their profile, promotion, event or post… chances are it’ll be on the first page of search results.
Bizniks are encouraged to hold networking events and workshops, both physical and virtual (online). Hundreds of Bizniks meet every week in coffee shops, hotels, meeting rooms, convention centers and in ‘the cloud’ (webinars, chat rooms, conference calls, Instant Messages and more).
Many people (including me) have 2 Facebook accounts; one primarily for family and friends and the other for business connections. Just because Facebook is the number one social media site doesn’t prevent it from being used for business. You cannot ignore the vast communities that have grown out of these environments.
The same holds true for virtual online worlds. Take ‘Second Life’ for example. Second Life is an online game where you create an avatar (a virtual representation of yourself) and wander around a virtual world making friends and interacting with others. You can earn virtual money and engage in business activities. That virtual money can be exchanged for real money but can also buy online (virtual) products and services.
Second Life is a virtual world built around social networking and big business has gotten involved big time. Major companies have bought virtual real estate and ‘set up shop’ in this virtual world. Reporters wander around interviewing virtual people; Dell, IBM and others have virtual office buildings and stores. In the world of FREE, there’s always business and networking ensues.
The great thing about FREE is that there is no risk. If it doesn’t work what have you lost? You try it but understand what you’re doing but good content and participation is vital. The old maxim of garbage in / garbage out still applies.
Marketing has shifted focus considerably over the past few years. There are plenty of business people who were marketing their services effectively but are now finding the effectiveness of that marketing has diminished due to the nature of the researching and buying habits of modern customers.
Those business people who ignore (or are unaware of) promoting their services through interactive online communities will find that what they knew about marketing has lost a large degree of relevance. An advert in yellow pages says a whole lot less than a well written blog post with a series on comments from happy customers.
The business owner has to, as never before, think like his customer. What is the customer searching for, where is he searching, how is he making his buying decision and what are his existing customers saying about him.
Google has created a multibillion dollar company built around FREE. It has huge data centers around the country constantly scanning for new content; indexing and updating its results so that you can type in what you’re looking for and have results immediately presented. You can choose from sponsored links and search results. You can click on a website or a blog post and more often than not, will see Google Ads appears that are relevant to the search results. You need to be part of those results… and the social media / blogging environment is the best way to get there.
The good news is that all of this technology to get you noticed is free. Biznik, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg etc are all free. You can often upgrade your membership and get additional features but at the very least you have to be part of them. They have SEO clout by their expertise and sheer presence on the web which in turn gives you additional clout. Develop good content, regularly update and you’ll move up the search engine ladder. Network and market well and you’ll continue up.
© 2010 Christine Ely
WordPress – Opening the Floodgates to the Open Source Revolution
The thing about WordPress (and other open source products) is that we’re still just scratching the surface of a wave that is changing the world. Open source software and the whole ‘cloud computing’ paradigm are having a profound effect on the industry.
Open source software is now more than just a credible alternative to mainstream software; it is rapidly becoming ‘the’ mainstream. Budgets have taken a massive beating and for many, developing a website, hiring a graphic designer, buying Adobe Creative Suite or investing in any other commercially available technology has become just too expensive and too darned complicated. But open source software answers all of these issues because it’s powerful, intuitive and ‘free’… and how can you compete with free?
WordPress is at the forefront of the ‘open source’ revolution because it epitomizes all that ‘open source’ stands for. It empowers anyone to become a true part of the social media phenomenon. With WordPress, you can develop a fantastic website and blog; you can maintain it yourself, you can accommodate many contributors and vast quantities of materials; you can incorporate or share with an amazing assortment of social media sites such as Facebook, Biznik, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and more. You become part of a global community that is expanding every day.
By utilizing WordPress, and 3 additional open source products, anyone with a little training and a lot of enthusiasm can get online with a site that they couldn’t have dreamed of just a few short years ago. The combination of WordPress, NVU (for HTML), Gimp (for graphics) and Filezilla (for transferring files) is a one stop shop to building professional, multi-user, multimedia websites and blog without any develop costs. And for many, WordPress and a well chosen theme is all they need.
You have to understand that WordPress is not just a ‘free’ alternative to the commercial products. It may be free but it is way better than just about anything available; which is why it is so widely used by major corporations and government bodies alike. ‘Paradigm shift’ is an overused term nowadays but it is completely apt for what’s happening in the whole ‘cloud computing’ / ‘WordPress’ development culture.
The individual is empowered like never before because he or she has access to exactly the same tools as the richest of companies. And when the penny truly drops, books, training, consulting and ancillary services will sell by the bucket load because the only cost in getting online (for websites, blogs, databases, eCommerce systems and much more) will be the cost of learning.
From my experience, many total novices learn enough in just a few hours to appreciate that by using WordPress, they can be empowered to do something that they would have previous thought of as ‘extra-ordinary’.
The acceptance and integration of Open Source software and WordPress into mainstream business is becoming more significant every day. Hundreds of millions, if not billions of instances will find their way onto people’s browsers. Cloud computing (viewing and processing through a browser) opens the door to everyone. It doesn’t matter whether they are using a Windows laptop in a coffee shop in Seattle, a MacBook in a glass office block in San Francisco or a Linux netbook in Nigeria. They all access the web, have equal access to WordPress and can benefit from all that free ‘open source’ software offers them. All they need is a way to learn how to use it.
The future of business is in the cloud
The World of WordPress is a professional, affordable website design company located in Seattle, WA. We offer web services to every type of business nationwide. specialize in WordPress sites that include Flash Animation, ecommerce, video, and interactive content. Our sites are always Search Engine Optimized for global visibility.
A website is your shop window to the world. Your products and services are accessible to hundreds of millions of people, simply by being ‘on the web’. We will make your business successful online. Our WordPress designers and trainers work closely with our graphic designers to insure that you get the right message across in the right way and to the right audience.
Maximizing Profit through CRM and Networking
Although the term CRM is now synonymous with software it is a concept that has been utilized for decades by companies that operate customer centric policies. It basically involves the processes and methodologies employed in managing the relationships between the company and the customer.
Customers are fickle creatures. They want to be looked after, nurtured, and made to feel special. A typical customer’s basic instinct is to be loyal. It’s like any relationship. It may not be everything you want but it’s familiar and comfortable. But just like a relationship, if you ignore and neglect your customers, they may get a roving eye… and your competitors are always out there trying to snap them up.
If you only have a few customers, it’s possible to remember and manage them with a minimum of technology. Provide a good service, keep track of their orders, call them every now and again to see that they’re happy, send them thank you cards and so on. That’s effectively customer relationship management.
But what if you have ten customers, fifty? Will you remember every aspect of every transaction? Will you remember to follow up on every call?
The purpose of CRM software is to enable you to manage multiple customers personally. To automate processes that ‘touch’ your customers on a regular basis and then to remember every instance of every conversation, email, appointment, or transaction of any kind. All of these transactions are stored directly in your customer’s unique record so that your total relationship with that customer is always available.
Good CRM systems feature ‘Activity Managers’, which can automatically create a sequence of tasks and events.
Let’s say you meet a bunch of people at an event who express an interest in your service. You’ll enter them into the CRM system and then apply an ‘Activity’ from the Activity Manager Library. A typical activity (series of tasks and events to be posted to the client’s record) would be:
- Do immediately: Send an email to express how happy you were to meet the person
- In 1 day: Send a flyer or brochure of your services by mail
- In 3 days: Make a phone call to reconnect and confirm that your flyer was received and is there anything more you can do at this time.
- In 10 days: Send eNewsletter (and add to monthly newsletter mailing list)
- In 21 days: Invite to your own network meeting
- And so on…
Multiple activities can be created and applied to existing customers, new prospects, network partners or anyone else in your database. The whole series of events is immediately applied to the customer record and the system updates all the relevant task lists, to-dos and appointment schedulers.
No matter how many customers or prospects you have, the CRM system will be managing the relationship, sending out reminders and thank you cards, scheduling phone calls, remembering renewal dates and so much more. And all of these events and transactions will be neatly filed against the individual customer records.
Good CRM systems offer full synchronization with portable devices like your PDA, Blackberry, iPhone or Windows Mobile device. Synchronization works both ways so that if you’re at a meeting and enter an appointment into your Blackberry, it will synchronize and update your CRM system. If you constantly use Microsoft Outlook to schedule appointments, then it too joins the party and synchronization becomes a 3 way process.
CRM software has evolved over the years to accommodate new technologies and methodologies. It used to be the preserve of big companies but nowadays, highly intuitive but hugely powerful systems are affordable by the smallest of businesses.
In my experience, a fully utilized CRM system typically increases business by over 30% because it encourages you to treat your customers the way they expect. Where, in the past, you may have neglected to follow up, thank, send out renewal applications, cross sale and up sale notifications, special offers, anniversary cards, newsletters and so on, your CRM system will methodically churn out personalized materials and your customers will continue to love you and do business with you.
CRM software has become an incredibly important category. How well you know your customer will determine how much business he or she will do with you. As Sir Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is Power”. That knowledge can be contained in your CRM system.
Marketing is not just American for Selling
When I went to marketing school, one of the first lessons concerned the circus coming to town. It’s a great story!
If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying, “Circus is coming to Fairgrounds Sunday,” that’s Advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk him through town, that’s a Promotion. If the elephant walks through the Mayor’s flower bed, that’s Publicity. If you can get the Mayor to laugh about it, that’s Public Relations. And, if you planned the whole thing, that’s Marketing!–Author Unknown
Times have changed but the principal remains the same. In a Web 2.0 world, you still need to advertise, promote, publicize, and do your PR but there are new tools AND new challenges out there!
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “you only get one chance at a first impression” but that warning should be doubly heeded in business. Let’s say you’re going to a BizNik network meeting to promote your new business to a room full of BizNiks. You’re a little short on funds, so you decide to get your nephew (who knows a bit about computers) to create some business cards for you. He can use a template on Microsoft Publisher and print them on your inkjet printer.
You know you should have a website so you Google search to find a hosting company that’ll register and host your site for next to nothing and has tools to build the site in under an hour. Great! So that’s what you do and you’re on the web!
You have your details and email address on your business card:
Email: tommyljonesenterprises@hotmail.com.
Website: www.tommyljonesenterprises.com.
So off you go to network, talk about your business and hand out your cards.
1. Your business card is obviously home made because the ink ran when a drop of coffee splashed on it.
2. You’ve gone for a free email account because it’s easy to setup and costs nothing but says nothing about your business but too much about you.
3. Your point and click website is bland and formulaic. It says little about what you really do but says an awful lot about what you don’t do!
Every business, whether small are large, has to portray its identity. If you hand out business cards that look like you designed and printed them yourself, what does that say to your potential customers? Is that how you’ll work for them?
The moral of that story is be professional at what you do best and get professionals to work on your behalf with the other stuff. Your amateur ‘first impression’ will linger long after you come to your senses and present yourself professionally.
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.
Don’t waste that first impression! When it’s gone, it’s gone!
Marketing is about creating a comfortable and reassuring environment for your potential customers. Once you achieve that, your products and services will sell themselves.
We don’t all have access to an elephant to parade through town but we can all create our own mix of marketing components. The following details how to get your show on the road!
- A comprehensive website that is tailored to your services and clearly addresses the needs of your potential customers. It should have a clear navigation system with easy access to what you do. Contacting you should be just one click away.
- A website video. No amount of text compares to actually seeing you. Many potential customers will prefer ‘check you out’ before actually meeting you face to face… so why not let them meet you through a video on your website? You can say a lot in 2 minutes about what you do and who you are. Once you have the video, link it to your BizNik profile, create a YouTube page, put it on MySpace… then link it all together.
- A consistent business identity is essential. Wherever your name appears, it should be consistent with other materials. You should have a recognizable logo which appears on all of your marketing materials; website, truck, store front or forehead sticker! (ok forget the sticker)
- High quality business stationery. Everything you pass out should be professional. It shows intent to your customers and it reflects on you.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software. You cannot hope to remember everyone you meet so when you get a business card, enter it into a system that will remember for you. Follow up is vital in the marketing process. A good CRM program allows you to keep track of all your customers, prospects, appointments, tasks, emails, and events. It will also synchronize directly with you Blackberry, iPhone or Windows Mobile device.That gives you real time access to marketing ‘intelligence’.
- Get some marketing training. Marketing is about the mix of events. Remember the circus story and you’ll realize that marketing is not just an American term for selling.
One final tip. Nothing beats word of mouth marketing. Impress someone and they’ll tell a couple of people. Appear unprofessional and provide a bad service – they’ll tell everyone they know!