Friday, January 30th, 2009
It’s really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren’t.
Everyone tends to do it. It takes a conscious effort to not do it. I mean, you are a rational person. You believe everything you believe and think everything that you think. Why wouldn’t everyone else think and believe the same way? What are they? Morons?
It's really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren't.
As you grow up, you begin to realize that not everyone else is like you. There are other people in the room and they might think, believe, and feel differently than you do. Bigots never grow up.
When you are designing your site and writing your content, do it from the users point of view, not your own. They are the ones that you have created this magnificent new web site for, so honor them by talking in their language and answering their questions and meeting their needs.
The first step to do this is to define just who they are. Once you have them defined, forget everyone else. If you want to sell video games, your site will look much different then if you want to sell medical equipment.
It might be helpful to write down your definition of your users and tape it to your monitor, where you can remember them while you’re writing.
Their words, their needs, their solutions. That’s what you need to focus on.
Posted in content |
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
I will attempt to explain how to convert an existing site into WordPress. I wrote previously about converting a client’s site from old school tables to a CSS based WordPress theme at http://www.flowerart.biz. I think this should work for Frontpage based sites as well as DreamWeaver or any other site that is reasonably coded, that is, if you “saved as HTML” from MS Word, you’re on your own.
A lot of people are looking for this information, so I figure I should expand on it and tell you exactly what I did and how you can convert any existing web site into a WordPress themed site too.
How To Convert An Existing Site To WordPress
The concept of a theme is that it will be the framework, the common template, that all of your content will be displayed inside of. Normally, you will use the same look and feel, the same template, on all of your pages. This usually contains the header, the sidebars, the footer, and the content goes in the middle and changes from page to page. We’ll want to take the existing HTML files and slice them up into WordPress theme files, with a dynamic place in the middle to put all of the content.
Text Edit
Did I mention that you need a text editor to make WordPress theme files? MS Word will not work. You MUST be able edit the files and save them as “text” files. They can not be formatted in any way. On Windows, look for WordPad. On a Mac, look for TextEdit. Do not make them RTF, or Rich Text Format. Just save the files as simple old text.
Quick shout out for BBEdit on a Mac. The ultimate text editor and if you’re going to be doing this, worth every penny. It does not suck. Says so right on the box.
Set Up Dev
Before we get any farther, you’ll need a development installation of WordPress that you can play with and break. It can’t share the database with an existing installation, or the theme you pick here will be the theme that the existing site will get at the same time.
If you do not have an installation of WordPress yet, install it and we’ll just play with it until we’re happy with the new theme. No one is looking. No one cares. Feel free to break it all you want.
If you do have an existing installation, you need to make another installation. It’s easy, but pay attention. You will have the existing site in your top level. You’ll probably have a “wordpress” folder with all of the files in it, in that top level. Make a copy, or upload a new copy, of WordPress right next to that folder. Name the new folder “dev”. You will now have the existing Worpress in “wordpress” and the new one right next to it, named “dev”.
Take the existing wp-config.php file and download it to your hard drive, where you can edit it. Open it up and look for the line that says ” $table_prefix = ‘wp_’; “. That “wp_” is the prefix for all of the tables in the database that WordPress uses. We don’t want to create a new database. We want to create new tables inside the existing database. We leave everything else in this file alone, but we change the “wp_” to “dev_”. Our new installation will see that and go create a new set of tables, all with names beginning with “dev_”.
Upload that wp-config.php file and upload it to our new “dev” installation. It should be next to all of the other “wp-”folders, at the top level.
Now, we’ll let WordPress do it’s thing. This is where the WordPress is so much better than any other Content Management System out there. We’ll finish the installation using your web browser.
Go to the home page of the new “dev” WordPress installation. If you have a previous installation, type in that URL, followed by /dev/, which is the folder that we put the dev WordPress. If this is a new installation, then you can go to the new home page. You should be looking at a new installation page that says “welcome”. You need to fill in the Name of the new site and your email address.
Click on the Install WordPress button. Wait for a really long time while WordPress goes out and updates the database and installs all of the information that it needs. This might take up 10 seconds on a slow day.
You will be looking at a Success! page. The user name is “admin” and the password is some totally obscure random string. Log into the new site and look around. You now have a development site that we can install themes on and break if we want to.
Lift and Separate
We want to go back to looking at the existing site that you want to convert. We want to lift the HTML from it and separate it into WordPress theme files.
The basic task is to separate out the “theme” elements from the “content” elements. If you have a stack of HTML files on your server and you’re not sure how they all work, download them and look at them in a text editor.
You need to have some background in HTML to know what you are looking at. You’re going to have to read the HTML and figure out what it is doing. You’ll see a lot of stuff at the top, in the <head> section. The next should be the header area, all the stuff at the top. Somewhere down after that, will be what looks like content, the actual writing.
Your task, and this is the hardest part, is to figure out exactly where the “top” stuff stops and the “content” stuff starts. It could be a table cell. It could be a <div> tag. You need to find that point.
In the simplest form, there’s a bunch of HTML, then there’s content, then there’s a bunch more HTML. The goal is to slice that HTML into files named “header.php”, “sidebar.php”, “footer.php”, and most importantly, “index.php”. There could be others, but we’ll talk about that later.
Slice off the top stuff and put it in the “header.php” file. Figure out where the side bar stuff might come and copy it into that. You don’t really need a sidebar file if you don’t want to have one or you might want a couple, using sidebar-right.php and sidebar-left.php. You’ll have to go through your code and look at the layout of the page.
Take the bottom stuff and put it in the footer.php. You saw that coming, didn’t you?
You’re left with the content. You need to create an “index.php” file. At the top, you want to have the tag <?php get_header(); ?>. At the bottom, you want to have the <?php get_footer(); ?> tag. You can put your sidebars in where you want them, before or after the content, for left or right.
In the middle of the index page, you want to put in the magic PHP tags that display the content. Open up the default theme index.php file and look at it. Copy everything starting at the <?php if (have_posts()) : ?> tag down to the <?php endif; ?> tag. You’ll get a bunch of “class=entry” and “php_content()” tags.
Save all of these files into a new theme folder. You’re doing all of this on your hard drive. Name the new theme whatever you want. “MyNewTheme” sounds great. Copy the style sheet from the default theme into your new theme folder. If you already have a style sheet from your original site, use that instead.
Open the .css style sheet file. You want to have the new name so that it shows up in the Appearance page in WordPress. At the top of the file, you need to have at least “/* Theme Name: MyNewTheme */”. The slash and asterisk means that it’s “commented out” so that it doesn’t interfere with the style sheet. Don’t use the quotes, just the slashes and asterisks. Look at the default theme style sheet or the codex for more info. This is minimum.
Upload and Look
Upload your theme folder to the “wp-content” themes folder, next to the default and classic themes. Go to your Themes page in WordPress admin and see if your theme is there. If it is, select it and activate it. Hold your breathe and “View Site”.
Did it work? Did it break? If you have horrible text that displays PHP error messages, read what they say and try to figure out where the error is. It’s probably a missing closing tag or a missing semi-colon. I hate those.
Did it display something, but it’s all out of whack? You need to play with the style sheets and the theme files to get it to display correctly.
Fix it
The simplest situation here is that you copied the code straight out of the original files and plopped it in here and it all works.
The issues could be style sheets, missing code, or badly written HTML. The more you change from original, the more you need to know what you are doing.
Pages
After you get it working and looking right, you want to create new pages for each page in the new site. Just create them and put some gibberish for now. You just want a place holder. Make sure that the menu points to the right places. Menus will be the next issue.
Existing Pages
If you have pages that you just don’t want to convert, you can put them into the Worpdress top folder, so that they act like normal pages. In my example, all of the portfolio pages are still hard coded PHP files. http://www.flowerart.biz/portfolio/ I needed to make sure the menus work, but those are hard coded pages. They are not visible in WordPress, but they are visible to the user. Read “Put A WordPress Menu In An External Page” to see how I made the menus dynamic on a hard coded page.
Menus
If you want to have dynamic menus, where pages are added to the menu when you create the pages, then you need to read through the codex about menu tags and their attributes. It’s possible to cut out the hard coded HTML menu that you had and replace it with a dynamic one. See where to cut out the old one and replace it with the new tags.
Different Templates
If you have different templates for different pages, you need to know what the differences are. If you need to create a new template for each page, you can do that. Go into each old HTML file, cut out the “contents” and replace it per the directions above. Now, create a new file that will act like that specific page’s index.php file. I like to name them all starting with “template_”, so you might have template_aboutus.php.
These new template pages need to have all of the tags of the others, header() and footer() and that stuff. It’s possible to have a template page that is entirely custom HTML and not even use the content() tags. You won’t be able to edit it, but it’ll show up on the site and be managed like other pages.
Each one of these new template pages needs to have the commented out lines at the top of the file that has the name in this format: “/* Template Name: About Us */”, again, without the quotes.
Upload this new file to the theme folder, next to the index.php file. Go back to the page that needs to use this template. On the right, there’s a “Template” drop down menu that should now list all of the template files that contain that “Template Name:” line in them. Select the one you want to use for that page and update.
Go look at it. You will have to customize and fix each template to make sure it works with the pages that you want.
Final Touches
You will have to go through each page and make sure that the menus work and that they look right. You can use the default theme as a guide. You can look up specific problems in the codex or the forums or you can ask me.
From here on out, it will be stylesheets and php tags to get it to look and work right. If you have a specific problem, let me know in the comments below and we can walk through it.
Posted in Wordpress |
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
SEO should be free.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. How much it costs will depend on how optimized you want it to be. Nothing in SEO costs any money, only time. You should learn what the techniques are and then you should do them your self.
SEO just wants to be free.
Don't pay for it.
A friend just told me recently “I have many people that do SEO for me already”. Really? He’s a friend, so I won’t tear him apart for that too much, but his site is found for the one thing that he’s interested in and it’s not found for his main products. I looked.
The first thing that you must do, MUST do, is to pick some keywords or phrases that you want to rank highly for. The best way to do this is to think about it from your users point of view. What problem are they trying to solve when they come to your site. Why should they be there? Wedding Flowers? Car Repair? Pizza? a TV Show? What are those words that they will type into Google to find you?
It’s good to get one main phrase that you was to own. That phrase will go everywhere on your site, so many times that’s annoying.
Now you need to pick 3-5 more phrases that you want to do well for. Maybe you won’t own these, but you still want traffic from them.
Remember, these phrases must be from the user’s point of view, not yours. You might think that you sell “water treatment systems”, but your users want to buy “water softeners”. You might think that you sell “hand made, one of a kind, jewelry”, but I’m looking for a “woman birthday gift”. You might think you sell “woman’s action wear”, but my wife’s looking for “woman sports clothes”.
Now that that has rolled around in your head for a while, you can write down the phrases that you want to rank well for and the one that you want to own.
Next, you can scatter those phrases around your site and ask for links from other sites. Make your title on every page contain that main phrase. Leave comments on other sites using those phrases. Do all of the other SEO stuff that you can find on the Internet and that I’ll talk about later.
SEO just wants to be free. Don’t pay for it.
Posted in SEO |
Monday, January 26th, 2009
WordPress is free.
I saw an article recently listing 10 free web site building tools. Most of them take a while to figure out. They won’t all let you do what you want to do. None were expandable to your own site if you ever wanted to take the next step, from “free” to “owning your own”.
The biggest cost is time.
It made me think about what the real costs of a web platform are. The biggest cost is time. How long does it take you to learn how to work it and make it do what you want it to do? How much is it going to frustrate you and make you figure out how to do something simple?
In my experience with WordPress, and I’m coming at this from a developer point of view, it’s much easier and intuitive to learn to use WordPress than with any other platform out there. When I build a site for a client using WordPress, it’s much easier to train them and get them up to speed on WordPress than other systems that I’ve tried.
Let’s look at the cost it would take to put a wordpress site on your own server and run it for a year. Domain name is $10. Don’t pay more than that for a domain name. Hosting packages can be had for less than $80 a year. Call the whole thing $100 for a year of hosting your own site.
If you use a good host, they would have an auto install version of WordPress. Click, click, bang. It’s set up. Play with a theme. Spend too much time looking on line for a theme. Download, install. Play with plug ins. Download, install. Write a few posts. Create a few pages. Change the layout a bit. Call it 8 hours total, from start to having your own blog on line, working, with your own theme and content. You have added the plug-ins that you wanted, the theme that you wanted, the layout, the content, the menu. All of it is exactly what you want.
The cost in time is really because you have TOO MANY options. If you can be satisfied with what comes out of the box, then a WordPress site can be set up in 20 minutes.
Compare that to another free host. Set up is quick and easy. Pick a theme. There are 20. Write a post. Change the layout? No. Can’t do that. Put the menu on the other side? No. Can’t do that. You want to post video? No. Can’t do that either. Podcast? Special functionality? Nope. None of that.
You’ve spent the same 8 hours trying to do stuff and not being able to that you would have on WordPress. It’s $100 cheaper and maybe that’s the difference for you. It doesn’t look quite like you want it to and it doesn’t have quite the right functionality. It’s harder to use and takes longer to post than WordPress. If it takes 3 minutes longer and you make 20 posts, that’s an hour. How many posts in a year?
This reminds me of the difference between Windows and a Mac. The Mac costs a bit more to start, but lasts twice a long, lets you work twice as fast, and makes it easier to do anything you want. Which is a better deal? How much is your time worth? How much money do you have?
It’s all up to you, but if you have $100 to spend on a web site for a year, spend it and build a WordPress site. You’ll thank me at the end of the year.
Posted in Wordpress |
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
I was walking a client through his Analytics stats yesterday, explaining what each page, each section meant. I asked him if he ever looked at these since we set them up. He looks at them as much as you do, which is never.
What traffic are you missing?
He didn’t connect the value of what these numbers and charts mean to how he can improve his site and make more money with it, as well as make it a better experience for his users.
As we drilled into the content part of it, I saw that no one, as in not one person, was looking through his portfolio pages. I realized that these pages have a smaller menu over to the side that people could easily miss.
Also, when I redesigned his site by bringing it into WordPress (of course), the top, main menu now has a different look and action than the original small portfolio menu. I used to just put a glow around the highlighted menu item and now I was doing the whole colored div background, which is much more apparent.
Now we have a menu that looks and functions differently and no one who ever clicks on them. HHHmmmm. What to do?
Next step, I put in the same style menu as the top, so they highlight the same. That should improve the click on those. We’ll be watching his stats to see what happens.
Read your Analytics pages today. What traffic are you missing?
Posted in statistics |
Monday, January 12th, 2009
I ran into an old friend recently. The usual questions were asked about what’s happened in the 20 years since we’ve seen each other. Yes, I do web sites.
They said they were about to update their web site. Their spouse had created it and they wanted to add some features and update the look. I suggested that they use WordPress. I sounded like the fan boy that I am.
They were pleasant, but said they already had hosting with GoDaddy and they would just use the web blog application that they provided as part of the hosting package. They had heard of WordPress and that it was good, but they would use what they had.
I continued on about how cool WordPress is. They were very nice, but had decided that they didn’t want to pay anything extra when they already had a blogging application included in their hosting package.
I checked it out on my own GoDaddy account. It sucked! It had a tenth of the functionality and the interface was horrible.
Did I mention that it's free?
I told them again that they should use WordPress. I told them that it is free. You can install it anywhere. It’s got features, and blah blah blah, and IT’S FREE!
Oh. That’s quite different. It’s free you say? You don’t have to buy it?
No! It’s FREE. You can download it, install it, pick a theme, put in some plug ins and have a complete, professional web site FOR FREE.
They said they would check it out. They thanked me profusely. Told me that I had motivated them to get going on their web site.
I have no idea if they will do anything on it at all, but I guess I was shocked that not everyone has the same understanding and knowledge and beliefs that I do. Silly me.
People seem to think that to get cool software, you have to spend money. If you don’t spend money, then you can have cool software. People can’t wrap their heads around the whole “open source” thing.
If you happen to not be aware, WordPress is free. There is no cost. You can download it and install it on any web server that’s running MySQL and Apache (which is almost every web server these days). You can control all aspects of it. You can build your own theme if you want. You can do anything with it.
Did I mention that it’s free?
Posted in Wordpress |
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
I’m offended by the “greasy hair” stereotype, but other than that, this article has some true things to say. I came from the web development world, where a budget of $30,000 was average. I worked at a company that developed a web site and sold it for $580 million bucks.
You don’t need that. From the article: ” Many people I know are fine with a simple and professional Web page.” That’s what I advocate, a simple, professional web site for FREE!.
Quoting from Small Business – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Web Sites By Gene Marks
Many people I know are fine with a simple and professional Web page.
A Vested Interest in the Debate
When was the last time I visited the site for the corner Exxon guy or the sub shop across from my office? To see the price of gas? To get nutrition info on ham on rye?
If you search the Web you’ll find lots of people writing about how small business owners must have a Web site. Dig a little further and guess what? Many of the people shouting how absolutely critical it is for a small business to have a Web site are — drum roll, please — in the business of helping small businesses create Web sites. Surprise! Despite what all the business experts — including the turtleneck-and-vest-wearing classes — may say, Web sites are not an absolute necessity.
Good business owners invest wisely and for the most return. They’re not in business to run a site just because it’s cool or hip. Many people I know are fine with a simple and professional Web page. Let the turtleneck-and-vest-wearing, greasy-haired geeks suck their fees from someone else.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=013001HJPXZ6&page=3&full_skip=1
Posted in marketing |
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
This is an amazing plug in. I wish I had known about it a couple years ago. It would have saved me a bunch of time and effort. Check it out.
Quoting from WordPress Sermons Plugin :: 4:14 evangelical christian theology blog
The Sermon Browser WordPress Plugin allows churches to simply upload sermons to their WordPress website, where they can be searched, listened to, and downloaded. It is easy to use with comprehensive help and tutorials. Features include:
1. Sermons can be searched by topic, preacher, bible passage or date.
2. Full podcasting capabilities, including custom podcasts for individual users.
3. Sermons uploaded in mp3 format can be played directly on your website using the 1PixelOut Audio Player.
4. An optional sidebar widget displays sermons on all of your posts or pages.
5. Embed videos from sites such as YouTube or Google Video.
6. Other file types can also be uploaded, including PDF, Powerpoint, Word, text and RTF. Multiple files can be attached to single sermons.
7. The full Bible text of the passage being preached on can be included on each sermon page (seven different versions, including ESV).
8. Files can be uploaded to your own site through the browser or via FTP. Alternatively you can use other free audio hosting sites such as Odeo.
9. Powerful templating function allows complete customisation to complement the look of your site.
10. Simple statistics show how often each sermon has been listened to.
11. Compatible with WordPress MU.
12. Extensive help and tutorial screencasts.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.4-14.org.uk/wordpress-plugins/sermon-browser
Posted in church |
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Half of all churches in America today do NOT have a web site. Half! What excuse is there for that? This article below is quoting a Duke University survey to make the point that the church has caught up with the times, that only a fifth of them had a web site in 1998. But the glass is not half full here. It’s half empty.
If you are involved with a church that does not have a web site, I can show you how to get one for free, using WordPress.com. All it takes is a little initiative on your part and you can have a web site. You don’t need a $300 site. You don’t need a $500 site. You can have a free web site for your church. Go to www.worpdress.com and follow the instructions.
Do it now. For the children.
Quoting from The Church In 2009 – KYPost.com
Close to half of the churches offer Web pages.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue3/story/The-Church-In-2009/o3oMerab5E2upfPeBvDqdg.cspx
Posted in church |
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
This is a great list of things that you should have on your church web site.
Quoting from 5 Features That a Church Website Shouldn’t Be Without | Web Site Design Blog
A good church website needs to be informative, visually appealing and have a bit of interaction with the visitor. After all shouldn’t your church’s website inspire people to visit your church physically? It can be easy to forget that people not in your local community may be searching for a church to attend a worship service. What features do you look for when you are looking at a church website?
How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better.
Driving Directions
How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better. Make it as easy as possible for the website visitor to locate your church.
Service Times
When do you worship? Often more times than not the service times are not listed on most church websites. Be sure to place your worship times prominently on the homepage of the site.
Sunday School
Let’s say that your visitors have children. What do you suppose they would like to know about your church? Make it well known that you offer a Sunday school service to avoid any confusion with new guests to your church.
Events Calendar
What if a member of your congregation misses a Sunday, but would like to know about the youth soccer game in the park? By having an up-to-date events calendar you can let your church members know what is going on.
Pictures
Sure stock photography is great in some cases, but what about those great pictures from your church’s mission trip? Be sure to include real pictures of your church and congregation. This will give your site a more realistic and personal touch.
Read the entire article at:
http://blog.collinsinternet.com/27/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without/
Posted in church |
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
This is quite an indictment against the church’s use to technology, or the lack there of. This is how the secular world views the church, as “a primitive, backwards relic from a superstitious, theocratic Dark Age”. While this article is specifically about the Catholic church, the view applies to most all Christian churches.
I think that phrase could also be used for any business that doesn’t have a web page. In 2008, there is not reason that any business doesn’t have a web site, none at all.
It’s not that hard folks. It’s really not. I sell a book, Web Site Starter Kit, that will tell you how to get a web site for free, (yes, free!) and it won’t suck, I promise. You need to drag your small business or church out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st century. All the kids are doing it these days.
The Teapot Atheist: Isn’t that cute! The Church figured out the intertubes!
Church is a primitive, backwards relic from a superstitious, theocratic Dark Age.
The whole story is quite a commentary on what people really think about the Church. Why would it be news for them to use the internet if it didn’t defy our understanding of the fact that the Church is a primitive, backwards relic from a superstitious, theocratic Dark Age?
Read the entire article at The Teapot Atheist: Isn’t that cute! The Church figured out the intertubes!
Posted in church |
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
I have some experience with building and maintaining web sites for churches. Most of my professional life has been building them for large corporations, which is cool. It paid the bills. My heart is for church web sites though.
It just hurts to see what some of them look like out there. I am going to change the direction and focus of this site a little bit to point it more towards churches. Most of the advice and knowledge about small business web sites will apply to churches as well.
I’ll write a new version of the Web Site Starter Kit, this one will be for churches. You’ll learn how to build a site for FREE! Yes, this means that there will be no excuse at all, for not having a web site.
I am going to change the direction and focus more on churches.
My first church web site was in 1996. I had discovered the wonders of this new toy called The Web, so I registered the domain name for the church I was attending at the time. I had a web hosting business (I still do), so I built a simple site that had the basics; service times, a map, statement of faith, bios of the staff, etc.
I told the worship leader about it and he was excited. He “got it” back then.
I had a meeting to tell the church business manager about it. He told me to take it down immediately. The Internet was for child porn and software pirates, not churches. He was angry that I had even registered the domain name. Wooah… Dude. Slow down.
I left the meeting disheartened. Of course, being the obedient, submissive soul that I am, I left the site up and did what I knew was the best thing for the church anyway. Idiot.
There were more meetings and the business manager backed down. He began to see the benefit of the site. People were actually excited about it and word got back to him that it was “a good thing”.
The next step, after the “fear and loathing” step, was obviously the “control” step. They wanted to dictate to me exactly what should be on the site. They wanted everything approved before it went on the site. Again, I submitted by doing the best thing for the church. He never went to the site, so he never knew any better.
We finally got some people in the main office trained to keep it updated. It began to really become a useful tool in the life of the church. They started to look for a higher end publishing platform and spend money on it. About this time, there was another political shift in the church, unrelated to the web site, and my lovely wife and I chose to leave and help start a new church.
The original site fell into the hands of the, well, we’ll call them ill-equipped to design and maintain a web site. They didn’t spend any money after all and the site follows all of the “10 Common Mistakes for Church Web Sites”. It’s horrible, last time I looked.
Based on that wonderful experience, and the others that followed, I’ll be giving my advice on how to create and maintain a web site for a church. I’ll try to not go on religious rants, whether they involve Calvinism or Microsoft.
Posted in church |
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Everyone knows that the economy is in trouble. How should you react as a small business owner? How are you going to pay the rent next month? Which employee are you going to let go? How will you keep your current clients? Don’t panic.
The easiest and quickest budget item fora small business to cut back on is marketing. There’s no immediate affect felt, so you think it might be safe to cut, but nothing could be worse for your business. The Harvard Business Review said:
It is well documented that brands that increase (marketing) during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.
The best time to take advantage of your place in the market is in an economic downturn. Because other people are quick to cut marketing, you will have the perfect opportunity to reach even more prospective customers. In a downturn, aggressive PR and Communications strategy is the solution.
Building or updating your web site is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to reach those prospective customers. Now is the time to put some time into reviewing your web site. Does it say everything it needs to say about your small business? Can you add features that allow more customer involvement or at least feedback? Maybe it’s time to have a professional review your site and give you suggestions on how it can be improved.
Now is the time to spend more on advertising, not less.
Posted in marketing |
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Blog Archive » How to Convert More Website Traffic into More Customers & Sales by Inviting Prospects to Take Action
Here Are 3 Easy “Calls to Action” to Convert More Website Traffic into Sales on the About Us, Media and Contact Us Pages
1. On the “About Us” page, after your bio, add a powerful client testimonial praising your expertise and your measurable and specific impact on the client’s bottom line. Then add the line “Ready for these kinds of results in your organization? Click here to get started now!” (This links to the contact page).
This call to action, in fact, can be used for any page that does not have an obvious next step.
2. Your “Media” page should not just be a collage of logos. It should contain short videos of your TV appearances, audio clips of your radio interviews or featured-expert interviews on teleseminars. It should also include links to the articles where you were quoted or links to your articles that got published on the top websites. Let the world see what a sought-after, in-demand expert you really are.
With that being said, a simple, but effective call to action would be, “Sarah B. Marketer looks forward to being the featured expert on your next program. To schedule her appearance right now click here.” (This links to the Contact page.)
3. The Contact page, by definition, is a call to action. It needs to take your visitor by the hand and lead them through the next step.
It should not just be a page that displays your mailing address, phone number, and main corporate e-mail. Rather, it should lead with a paragraph that congratulates the reader for their decision to take action. Then, it should explain the process for getting in touch with you. It should also describe what someone should expect once they contact you.
Next, guide them through a simple web form that asks specific questions. This way you can do your homework and present prospects with a specific response and action plan. Make sure to keep this form as brief as possible, and only ask questions that directly inform how you and your visitor would do business together in the near future.
Having a web form, rather than just a link to your e-mail address, guides your visitor to take a specific action. This raises their level of commitment to you and increases your chances that they will buy from you.
Bottom line: Make sure that every page on your website provides a roadmap for your visitor with a specific call to action. This is the only way your prospects will reach the destination that you prepared for them. And, it’s the only way you will increase your website sales conversions.
Read the entire article at SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Blog Archive » How to Convert More Website Traffic into More Customers & Sales by Inviting Prospects to Take Action
Posted in marketing |
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
My wife went through the draft with her pen and marked it all up. Anything that she didn’t understand is being rewritten. Some of my organization wasn’t clear, so I’m making that a little clearer. We want to make Web Site Starter Kit the best it can be, which means clear, concise communication.
They haven’t quite released WordPress 2.7 yet, so I’m still rocking the RC1 version of it. They say they will release the final version tomorrow. A few more screenshots today and it should be good to go.
Web Site Starter Kit should be released by the end of the week.
Posted in web site build |
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Now we begin to actually do something. Maybe you should go to the bathroom now to think about what we’ve talked about. This next part might be too exciting and I don’t want to be responsible for any accidents.
Go to the web page at http://www.wordpress.com. If you go to the “.org” one, that’s where you get the stuff to do it all yourself. You’re too cheap for that, so make sure you go to the “.com” site. They’re the “host it for me for free” site.
See where it says “Express Yourself. Start a Blog”? We’re going to trick them and not start a blog, although they are all the rage. We just want an easy to use, free web site. Now, see that big button that says “Sign Up Now? That’s what you click next.
Posted in web site build |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Note: This is for people who already own a business, but don’t have a web site. This is not about how to blog your way to millions. It’s not about how to create the next Digg or FaceBook. This will tell you how to get your business on the web for free. That’s it. Don’t come whining to me if you expected something else.
Are you broke? Or are you just cheap? You just want a web site for your small business, but all you can pay is attention? Then listen up.
It’s really possible that you can create a web site for your business for free. It’s not going to be the prettiest. It’s not going to have some of the features that you’d expect in site that you paid for, but it’s going to work really well, give you all of the functionality that you need to put your site in the top rankings of the search engines, allow your vistors to find the information they want, and make it easy for them to give you their money. Best of all, it’s going to be absolutely free. It will not cost you a dime.
Before we walk through how to do that, let me tell you that there are better ways to build small business web sites. This process will get you a good web site, but it’s possible to get a great website for just a little bit of money. Since you’re reading this, we’ll only talk about the free stuff. After you see how cool the free stuff is, you’ll want more, so come back and read my other stuff about getting a small business web site for cheap, instead of free.
Posted in web site build |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Note: This is for people who already own a business, but don’t have a web site. This is not about how to blog your way to millions. It’s not about how to create the next Digg or FaceBook. This will tell you how to get your business on the web for free. That’s it. Don’t come whining to me if you expected something else.
Are you broke? Or are you just cheap? You just want a web site for your small business, but all you can pay is attention? Then listen up.
It’s really possible that you can create a web site for your business for free. It’s not going to be the prettiest. It’s not going to have some of the features that you’d expect in site that you paid for, but it’s going to work really well, give you all of the functionality that you need to put your site in the top rankings of the search engines, allow your vistors to find the information they want, and make it easy for them to give you their money. Best of all, it’s going to be absolutely free. It will not cost you a dime.
Before we walk through how to do that, let me tell you that there are better ways to build small business web sites. This process will get you a good web site, but it’s possible to get a great website for just a little bit of money. Since you’re reading this, we’ll only talk about the free stuff. After you see how cool the free stuff is, you’ll want more, so come back and read my other stuff about getting a small business web site for cheap, instead of free.
Posted in web site build |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Now that you have all of your pages, which has created all of your menus, and are filled with all of your content, what else do you want the site to do?
All of the fancy features that you want your site to do can be added using “plug ins”. Each plug in adds one bit of functionality. You can see all of them on the WordPress site here. www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
To install a plug in, you need to copy the plug in files to the plug in directory in your WordPress installation. That’s located at /top_directory/wp-content/plugins/. You’ll probably
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
Posted in web site build |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
There are some things that a small business web site should have to establish credibility and not look stupid. You should make it easy for people to contact you. Yes, even your phone number. Being able to call up and get a real person, even if all you can say is “Sorry, I’m busy right now, but I’ll get back to you” really means a lot to your customers.
Having your physical address really helps also. If you want to go all out, put on a photo of your shop if you have one. I’ll be very confident if I can see that someone has a real shop that way. Of course, you could go to Flickr or Google Images and find some slick office building and call it your World Headquarters, but, well, that would be stupid. If you want people to trust you and come back for more, don’t lie to them. Didn’t you learn that in third grade?
Posted in web site build |
