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7 Big Reasons To Create Your Next Small Business Website With WordPress

Adam Kreitman — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 08:27:31 +0000

Which would you prefer for you small business’ website?

One that involves custom programming costing $3000 or more, requires a knowledge of complex programming languages in order to make even simple changes to the content, and requires a complete redesign (again costing thousands of dollars) if you decide the look is outdated?

Or a website built on free software that has thousands of free add-ons available to make it do pretty much anything you want, an easy-to-use interface that you can use to update the content yourself without any programming knowledge and hundreds of professionally designed, quality templates you can use to change the appearance of the site at the drop of a hat?

No brainer, right?

If you aren’t familiar with it, an introduction to WordPress is in order.

Originally a software package used primarily for blogging, WordPress has become an amazingly robust Content Management System small business owners can use to easily create professional looking websites for their businesses.

Here are 7 reasons why using WordPress for your small business’ website is such an appealing option:

1. It costs nothing! Not one penny! WordPress is available for download at WordPress.org at no cost – you won’t even have to give up your email address. To host a WordPress site yourself, however, you will need to find a hosting company. That’s generally not free. But it’s not expensive either. For just $5 – $10 a month you can host your WordPress site at any number of quality web host providers. Many of them include Fantastico with your hosting plan which is software that lets you install WordPress in just a few clicks without even having to download the software.

2. Easy to Use. Not only is WordPress easy to install, but it’s extremely easy to use. I’m not saying there won’t be a learning curve, especially for those who are technically challenged, but there are plenty of how-to tutorials around the web to teach you everything you need to know about using WordPress and then some. After that initial learning curve, adding new blog posts or pages to your site is about as easy as using a word processing program. And there is absolutely no requirement to know how to write code or do any other technically-involved activities to update and maintain your WordPress site.

3. Themes. Think of a theme as a template. It will change the look and feel of your WordPress site. It can also change the behind-the-scenes workings of your site to provide additional functionality. You can choose from thousands of different themes – some are free, some you have to pay for. And if you can’t find one that quite suits your requirements, you can hire a designer to create a custom theme for your WordPress site.

Themes make it easy to get a clean, professional looking site without having to pay for a lot of custom design work. And they’re easy to install and change. If you wake up one morning and decide your site needs a facelift – no problem! Find a theme you like better, activate it and you’ve got a brand new look to your site – without having to touch the content of your pages or blog posts.

4. Plugins. Plugins are software the extend the capabilities of WordPress to do pretty much anything you want. Using plugins, you can track site visits, add social bookmarking to your site, automate backups of your site, fight spam, create contact forms, improve site security and a lot more. And, with few exceptions, the plugins are absolutely free.

5. Search Engine Love. Google (and the other search engines) love WordPress. Using WordPress can give your search engine optimization efforts a big boost. And if you take advantage of some of the SEO-related plugins available for WordPress, the searc engines will really think your site is the bee’s knees.

6. Technical Support. WordPress does not offer tech support for you to email or call with your questions. However, have no fear, there are still a ton of options for you if you have an issue you need addressed. You can turn to the forum on WordPress.org, which is a very active community of WordPress users who are always willing to help those having problems with the software. In addition, there are a bunch of other websites, message boards and blogs that you can turn to for advice. There are also plenty of wordPress experts for hire to assist you. Whatever issue you may encounter, help is always close at hand.

7. Control. Hosting your own WordPress website puts you in control of your web presence. Need to update your content, add new posts or pages? You can easily do it yourself. Want to update the appearance of your site? Find a new Theme, upload it, activate it and you’re done. Don’t like the hosting company you’re using? Find another and move your site – there are plenty of good hosting companies around.

So there are seven strong benefits to using WordPress for your small business’ website/blog. Without a doubt there are reasons why you may WordPress may not work for your situation and hiring a programmer to develop a custom site is the best option.

For most small business owners, however, WordPress will provide all that you need to get a professionally looking website that you, and the search engines will love. It’s a highly functional, flexible and cost-effective option that is hard to top.

Adam Kreitman is a St. Louis online marketing consultant. While he is not a designer, he got tired of seeing small business clients with overpriced, poorly designed websites so he started helping clients develop sites using WordPress. To get the word out to a larger audience he started a website which provides tips, video tutorials and resources for using WordPress for business.

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Make Your Business Blog A Success

WorkatHome — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:00:08 +0000

The Good, The Blog & The Ugly: Make Your Business Blog a Success
by Christopher B. Marquis

Blogging grew out of the need for dialogue and the exchange of ideas in a relaxed and informal setting. The GOOD thing about the blog is that it hosts a number of great avenues for businesses in terms of marketing and advertising. The UGLY thing about blogs is that you need to take precautions and use certain strategies if you take a business online with a blog.

This article shares 8 Principles which will help to make sure your blog is helping your business rather than hindering it.

Principle 1: Blog Responsibly

Make sure that employees do not reveal sensitive information about your business in your company blogs. Your competitors could (and probably will) read your blogs and the last thing you want is your secret strategy being leaked to them before you have even launched it to the public.

Principle 2: Know thyself and thy blogging

To keep up with the ever changing world of blogging, it is important you notice new trends. Traditionally, blogs were just comments, stories, questions and notations. Nowadays some of the most successful blogs are multimedia works of art with significant audio and video elements. To make your blog stand out, get creative with multimedia!

(see for example General Motors’ excellent bloghttp://fastlane.gmblogs.com/).

Principle 3: Know thy enemy blogger

Knowing your own abilities, limitations and the available technology is good, but not good enough. You need to also know who you’re competing with. You should therefore follow the advice of Cory Miller when he suggests that we ’study the great blogs and learn what makes them great.’ By studying successful competitor blogs, we learn why they are successful, how we can adopt their strategy and how to improve upon it, thus drawing more attention to ourselves. It’s dog eats dog out there, or rather, blog eat blog.

Principle 4: Blog effectively

One of the important things with blogs is to think consistently about what will be the best strategy for your company. For example, Thomas Nelson Publishing recommends that you have your employees host blogs separately to your company so as to distance personal opinions from company policy. However, a smaller company might do the opposite of that strategy and have all employees post their blogs on the company website to create more of a ‘community feel’.

Principle 5: Blog with Vision

Keep your eyes on the broader picture when blogging. Where is blogging heading? What are the future trends? How can your business take advantage of them? When you do this and implement new strategies, you can be leader not a follower in the world of blogging.

Principle 6: Blog with Depth

This implies that you’re always looking for the unseen advantages of blogging, which means looking at corporate blogging for what it is: an effective TOOL for marketing and advertising. By keeping your eye on the ball you always know WHY, HOW to, and how NOT to blog. The best corporate bloggers always look at blogging in this way.

Principle 7: Keep note of blogging details

The more attention you pay to what is happening on your blog, the more effective it will be. It’s just like a pot plant – the more energy and attention you give it, the better it will grow.

Principle 8: Avoid blog overuse

Don’t’ blog just for the sake of it. Make sure you are blogging with purpose and in conjunction with other effective marketing strategies. Remember, there are a host of other internet marketing strategies that are equally effective and can be used in conjunction with blogging. Explore them all and create a multi faceted strategy that clearly makes your company the preeminent force in your field.

The main trick to successful blogging is to understand what is happening in the world of blogging, what you think is going to happen and also to use your blog carefully so as to avoid any negative outcomes. Following the 8 Principles will help to ensure your blogging is successful.

If you’re thinking about starting an external blog for your company, you might want to lay down a few rules for employees regarding safe blogging, since it can be read by anyone. Examples range from avoiding slander to divulging sensitive company secrets and product information.

Many people set up their blog with a free blogging service such as www.blogger.com. I suggest that you use your own domain to operate your blog using Wordpress or Movable Type. This gives you much more power and flexibility when creating your blog.

http://www.wordpress.org http://www.movabletype.org/

Both of these services provide a lot of support and help materials to get started. You will be blogging successfully in no time!

About the Author:

Author Christopher B. Marquis is the bloger behind AustralianBlogs.com.au, a ‘clearing house’ of information on the Australian Blogosphere. Visit the site for more great blog promotion ideas and news.

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How Do I Start Blogging For Cash

WorkatHome — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:00:16 +0000

How Do I Start Blogging for Cash?
by Mark Hall

Blogging can be a very rewarding pursuit. There are plenty of reasons why people choose to be bloggers; some are in to make as much money as possible others do it for the mere fun of it. When the right strategies are used, it is possible to create a huge monthly income from this work; many have made thousands of dollars in their free time. Here’s the best way to explain blogging and why so many people pursue it.

Today, the blogger will have many choices how he wishes to monetize his or her blog. You can find direct advertising options as well as affiliate offers. If you are willing to search, there are plenty of ways to make money from a blog. There is one ingredient for success that you need to make successful – the ‘big T’. What is the big T? Well, its ‘traffic’; if your blog site doesn’t have enough traffic, you will not earn any money.

Let’s share some great ways to make money from your blog. PayPerPost and ReviewMe are two good ways to start making money. These programs do not depend on click through rates, traffic or other factors to use them. This is an excellent option for bloggers with a hectic schedule. If you wish, you may write a review for a fee which is an excellent method to make money from blogging.

It is possible to make a decent amount of money by using this method. Before you start, observe these guidelines. One mistake is to post only when you have a review to make. Sponsored posts make your blogs less appealing and you will drive traffic away; so, do not write about unrelated products.

You will have more options if the revenue is based on the reader’s actions, purchases, and participation. A good example of this in action is affiliate offers. This option lets you incorporate the offers and links into your actual text. Suppose your blogs are all about repairing credit, make sure that you provide links and advertisements for services associated with credit repair, credit reports, and other related services or products. There are some wonderful surprises to be discovered using this method. NeverBlueAds, AzoogleAds, Share-a-Sale, and Commission Junction are simply havens to find great programs; find some great offers by visiting the website.

Opt for content based advertising if you prefer a less intrusive form. All the advertisements will be created based on the contents of the page. Publisher Networks of Yahoo and Google’s Adsense are some of the most popular players in this particular area.

You can join into the league of successful people making a regular income through this system. Every visitor that visits your blog can increase your turnover; you can expect to earn money from the traffic because these ads are part of the website. Placing those ads will give your visitors extra information.

So release your fears and jump aboard; find a few money making methods that you find interesting and select the ones that best suit your interests. It takes certain traits to e a successful blogger. Your talent can be turned into a money making opportunity online. Start blogging today and make some good money from your effort.

About the Author:

Mark Hall utilized his online marketing skills to get his website ranked in the Top 10 in Google. View his vemma and Toksee site to check out his case study report.

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Blog Reviews For Better Stats

WorkatHome — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:02:46 +0000

Blog Reviews For Better Stats
by Joseph Trenton

Giving your site the credit that it deserves is a great way to build a customer base from the traffic that you receive. In order to receive more traffic that comes to your site already with a sense of trust, you can use a blog review in order to get the best advertising for your money. A blog review will give you the most targeted traffic from relevant blogs that share the same topic of interest as your site.

A blog review will work to give your site that boost it needs in a variety of different ways. First, you will be able to get a new set of traffic that you may not have realized existed before. This will help you to show your website to new demographics that may have never seen it before.

A blog review works by paying someone to blog about your site. You can ask them for an honest review of your site, or you can ask for a more positive spin on the review. Either way, a blog review puts the advertising for your website in the hands of someone else who already has a trusted set of consumers. And if those consumer trust the blogger, they will realize that the site they chose to write a blog review about it worth checking out.

Another way a blog review will give you the right targeted traffic is by using the virtual word of mouth approach. Loyal readers of any blog that has given your site a blog review will trust the opinion of the blogger. This means that the targeted traffic will begin pouring into your site within a few hours of the blog review begin posted. There’s no better way to get targeted traffic than that.

A blog review will be written in a couple of different ways. You can ask for an honest review or a positive review. No matter what anyone thinks of your site, the positive review will always give the spin that you need in order to let people trust your website before the click. An honest review might point out the website’s flaws, but they can work to your advantage. You know that you are being honest upfront, so many people will take that as a sign of trustworthy company.

The reason that a blog review will help you get the most for advertising for your dollar is that a blog review works by virtual word of mouth. This is how people are able to find trusted websites on the web. If they trust the blogger, than they know they can trust the website that they have written a god review about.

Having more traffic coming in from a blog review will also help your link popularity which will effect your rankings on social bookmarking sites and other link rankings online.

A blog review is a small cost for a lot of potential traffic. If you want to get more traffic that is targeted and feels that you are offering an honest product or service before they even get to your site, then the blog review has done its job. Not only that, but you can use this advertising strategy again and again with multiple blogs.

About the Author:

Before you spend another dollar promoting your online business check out our affordable blog review service. Bring in more targeted traffic to your site with a well written blog review from a high PR site.

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