A problem you’ll face as you grow your business

Posted on Feb 25, 2010

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If you run a business, and if you expect it to grow, one of the challenges you will face as you work on business growth is running a website that is easy to manage as your site needs increase.

Let’s say you have a small business and only need 3 or 4 pages, you can easily create them in many different website building programs. No problem.

But as your business grows, it’s easy to lose control of your site. Let’s say that next month you need 8 pages. And the month after that you need a total of 12. With other website building techniques, this can become more complicated and messy and sometimes you might drop a page here or there accidentally. Or, more often, you might end up with a link pointing nowhere.

But with WordPress, that is carefully managed for you. If you need 8 or 12 pages, you can easily build them really fast. If your business has a sudden boom and you need another 50 pages, you can build them really fast, too. And someday, when your business has grown to become an international conglomerate, and you need 1000 pages, you can do it. Still just as fast and still just as stable.

Scalability is the ability for your website to grow appropriately with your business while remaining stable for your users and easy for you to manage.

It’s not easy to find scalable solutions that can grow with your business from the earliest stages to your universal domination. But WordPress is such a option. If you run a business and if you expect it to grow, WordPress is the scalable tool you need.

Understanding the pieces of the website puzzle

Posted on Feb 23, 2010

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From time to time people ask us about how they can “put a website online”. For us, it’s a piece of cake because we’ve done it a million times. But for someone who has never created a website before and put it online, it can be confusing. What does it mean to “put a website online” anyway?

Consider this to be a primer on moving a site online. Sort of a “website basics for Dummies” kind of blog post.

You basically need 3 things:
•    Hosting
•    Code
•    A URL (or “domain name” or “website address”)

Think of it like a neighborhood: Hosting is the property that you will build your house on and the code is the house itself. But how do you get people to find you? You get an address from the post office and you put your address near your front door or on the mailbox so people can see it.
In a really basic way, it’s the same for websites. You buy hosting, which is basically a big empty piece of virtual land that you can do something with. Then you add files of code (html, php, css, etc.), very much like the framework of a house. And, you buy a URL from a domain seller. Then, you put them all together.

Usually you’ll get the domain and point it to the hosting (how you do that is for another lesson). Then, you gather the code (how you build that code is for another lesson, too) and you upload it to the hosting.

The result? When someone types your domain into their browser, their browser takes them to your host and it interprets your code and shows them your website. Easy!

Of course, if this were a real life example, they’d just be looking at an empty house. Once you have those hosting/code/URL elements in place, you need to add content (text, graphics, video, etc.) to your website so that people have something to look at when they get there.

And how does WordPress and WordPressInASecond fit in?

WordPress itself is the code you can upload to some hosting. Add a domain and voila, you have a website!

And WordPressInASecond shows you how to get the hosting, WordPress code, and domain name all working together really, really fast. (Oh, and we even have some hosting solutions to make it even more convenient for you!)

Why WordPress is perfect for… Coaches

Posted on Feb 10, 2010

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We’re running a series of blogs this month called “Why WordPress is perfect for…” and we’ll be looking at various professions or business models and talking about how WordPress solves challenges and enhances opportunities for that group.

Today’s highlighted business model: Coaches

While some coaching services can be sold online, a majority of a coach’s work is based on the time they spend with their client. That could be over the phone, it could be in person, it could be one-on-one, it could be in groups. The bottom line is, most coaching is person-to-person.

So what’s their website for? A coaches’ website needs to start out as a place to demonstrate their skill-set in order to show potential clients their thought leadership and how they might help them. An organizational coach might want to blog about organizational tips; a productivity coach might want to blog about how to improve efficiency; a career coach might want to blog about how to get that next promotion.

From this blog, new clients will call coaches and book appointments and a coach’s schedule will fill up.

And that will work for many coaches as the primary way to earn their living. But there will come a point in many coaches’ careers when they realize that they are only working for the short-term and every client brings in a temporary cash flow but doesn’t do much for the long term health of the business.

At this point, the coach then looks at their site and how they might be able to develop more sales out of it. And two distinct ways they can do that include:

  • Selling information
    Offering a password-protected “membership” site

Offering these necessitates some basic rearranging of the coach’s site, perhaps bringing in a home page (instead of using the blog as a home page). Perhaps adding more resources and making their site a destination site.

These changes require flexibility. And a coach who buys a website that is designed and maintained by a web developer is at the mercy of the high priced web developer to transform the site and turn it from a blog into a website.

This is why WordPress is ideal: The coach whose practice is growing no longer has to rely on a web development team to do the job. The coach can do it themselves in an evening! With just some simple clicks on an easy-to-navigate dashboard, the coach can go from “small time” to “big time”!

Series: Why WordPress is perfect for… Entrepreneurs

Posted on Feb 04, 2010

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We’re starting a series of blogs this month called “Why WordPress is perfect for…” and we’ll be looking at various professions or business models and talking about how WordPress solves challenges and enhances opportunities for that group.

Today’s highlighted business model: Entrepreneurs

Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you that starting a business is like traveling on a journey to an new place: You know what your destination is, and you might even have a map (a business plan) but you’ve never actually BEEN there until now. There could be wrong terms, the map might not always be right, or detours may force you off of your planned route. Being an entrepreneur is about more than just having a good idea; it’s about flexibility and scalability.

That’s why entrepreneurs love WordPress. WordPress is so flexible. If you’re selling blue widgets today but realize that your market demands red gadgets instead, you can switch easily without the help of a high priced web development team.

And, WordPress is scalable. You can start a small business in your spare time today and grow it into a massive enterprise over the years without needing anything other than a WordPress website. It grows with you, all while helping you maintain tight control over your site’s pages and posts. And, should you need to scale back, it’s easy to do: The edit function in the dashboard gives you power over every single page on your site.

Let’s not forget budgets! Entrepreneurs need to watch their expenses closely and WordPress – which is free – is a low-cost-but-incredibly-powerful way to create a web presence.

If you’re an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur, or an aspiring entrepreneur, a WordPress website is the perfect tool to grow your business.

Series: Why WordPress is perfect for… Freelancers

Posted on Feb 02, 2010

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We’re starting a series of blogs this month called “Why WordPress is perfect for…” and we’ll be looking at various professions or business models and talking about how WordPress solves challenges and enhances opportunities for that group.

Today’s highlighted business model: Freelancers

Freelancing is a great business model because it often costs relatively little to get into business and the longer you’re in business, the better. (Compare this to a manufacturer who has a high up-front cost to build a factory and prototypes and then has to continually innovate in order to stay competitive). As well, all you need to get started is usually the right software and a double-serving of talent. (Some courage and sales ability don’t hurt, either).

Freelancers don’t need a lot to get started, but the do need some kind of web presence. And, depending on their business, they may need a blog or a more conventional website, or both. And likely, they need to start with one and grow. One common way for freelancers to become more successful is to start with a blog, expand into a website, and then slowly grow passive income with the addition of products or commoditized services. This could take months. This could take years. This could be just one additional product. This could be hundreds of additional products.

While a flexible web presence is important, freelancers need to keep costs down; and since so much of freelancing is time-dependent, they also need to keep their non-revenue-generating time

For this continual scaling up of a web presence, WordPress is the perfect solution. It offers freelancers the opportunity to build whatever kind of web presence they need to start effectively, and then it gives them the ability to add to their web presence as their business grows.

And WordPress is fast. You can get a site online in no time and make changes as often as necessary with just a few clicks and absolutely no coding.

Not only that, but the variety of WordPress themes and plug-ins give freelancers an automatic credibility-building look with plenty of automated business-building tools. If you’re looking at getting into freelancing, or if you’re thinking about improving your web presence, WordPress is a choice to consider.

Great Wordpress sites

Posted on Jan 28, 2010

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Hey, we love Wordpress! And so do lots of other people. It’s a versatile platform for all kinds of formats.

Here are some of our favorite Wordpress sites. Check them out to see how other people are using them, and to see some of the design and format options that are possible.

Copyblogger.com

ChrisBrogan.com

WordsForHireLLC.com

FreelanceWeekly.com

KomodoMedia.com

Fadtastic.net

TheMusicNinja.com

Hey, while you’re checking out their sites, why not check out our sites, too?

Mine: HeatherVilla.com

Aaron’s: AaronHoos.com

With Wordpress, the possibilities are endless!

Should I have a website or blog or both?

Posted on Jan 26, 2010

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This is a question that we get asked from time to time. “Which one should I have — a website or a blog?”

Blogs are easy to create once and then can be left alone. They are static and they help to inform customers consistently. Blogs are dynamic, changing over time.

Static content can be indexed but Google favors constantly changing dynamic content. On the other hand, dynamic content can be time consuming.

With Wordpress, you don’t have to decide. You can have both. Every easily. Not sure where to start? Here’s what we would advise:

If you run a service-selling business, start with a blog to generate some search engine optimization and then slow add in other website-style pages (such as “About”, “Services”, “Contact”, etc.)

If you run a product-selling business, start with a website with an initial, compelling landing page and individual pages for each product. Later, add a blog to talk more about your products and how your customers are using them.

(This advice might not work for every business in every situation, but we find it to to be a good rule of thumb if you’re not sure and need to do something… and there are companies that break this “rule” and do very well). Eventually, a combination of a blog and a website is ideal. The website helps to sell products and the blog helps to engage customers and offers more SEO benefits.

The most important thing? Don’t let not knowing hold you back. The unknown can cause inaction and inaction is the biggest disruptor to business success. It’s better to start your business’ site and  go back to make adjustments than to wait until you’ve got the “perfect” plan.

One entrepreneur’s story on switching to Wordpress

Posted on Jan 21, 2010

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This is my story: When I started my freelance writing/consulting business years ago, I started with a fairly traditional html-based website. Over time, the site became bloated and unwieldy and I sometimes had a hard time making sure links were live and went to the right place. (This was before any really good content management systems were invented; heck, I was hand-coding my site in Notepad!)

Then Blogger came onto the scene and I bought into blogging big time. I loved the idea of posting regularly. It was a great way for me to build my online presence but it also looked good and the links were fairly easy to manage. On the other hand, I gave up the ability to create website-style content (which was appropriate for selling ebooks and such). Still, I stuck with Blogger for a while. Then my site stopped being indexed. I’m not sure why, and with all due respect to the good folks at Blogger, I think it was because they changed a template and it just fell apart. I ran some diagnostics and got back HUNDREDS of errors. Yikes! A few attempts at making hand-coding repairs failed miserably. I loved a blog but couldn’t have a site that didn’t index!

Then I switched to a hosted solution — and back to static html. It was an admittedly temporary fix until I could figure out what to do with my blog. Once again, I found the same problems to those that I had encountered the first time: Dead links, constant updating to make changes on every page, etc. The need for a content management system — which I had temporarily forgotten while using Blogger — became a reality again.

Then I decided enough was enough. I had to fix the problem! So I listed my needs:

  • I preferred to blog as my primary content model
  • I wanted some conventional “page-based” website functionality
  • I wanted some control over SEO
  • I wanted a content management system.

Once I knew my primary needs (and there were a few secondary ones, too), I went out in search of a solution. I was willing to pay and, because it was my business, I was willing to pay thousands.

However, the solution I found cost nothing. And it provided me with a solution to the needs I had outlined… plus a lot more:

  • Once set up, Wordpress is extremely easy to use
  • I can choose page-based sites, blogs, or a combination
  • There is a HUGE universe of talented people who create themes, plug-ins, and support for Wordpress

I jumped on the Wordpress bandwagon and haven’t looked back!

Wordpress can make you more productive

Posted on Jan 19, 2010

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Entrepreneurs are busy. They don’t have a lot of time in their day and they have a lot to do:

  • Meet clients
  • Market their business
  • Plan for the future
  • Do some bookkeeping
  • Update their site
  • Build their product or deliver their service
  • … and I could go on and on.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know what I’m talking about. Your schedule is full and you probably wish that someone would create a time machine to increase the number of hours in the day.

Well, unless someone comes up with a DeLorean that goes 88 mph and can give us a couple more hours in the day, we need to find different ways of getting more done in the time we’re given:

That’s where Wordpress comes in.

  • As a content management system, Wordpress saves you time by giving you a single, central portal to create and manage all of your content.
  • At the time-saving click of a button you make make powerful changes to your website to make it more search friendly, easier to use, or just to give it a completely different look.
  • Wordpress is user-friendly, saving you time having to “learn something new”.
  • Wordpress sites save you time by freeing you up from having to code your site (or having to work overtime to pay a professional to do it).
  • As well, Wordpress plug-ins give you some powerful, time-saving ways to interact with your audience. You can auto-post to Twitter, you can enhance the value of your comments, you can bring in new ways of presenting your content (such as with graphics). These plug-ins extend your site’s capabilities at the click of a button.

Website owner’s manifesto

Posted on Jan 14, 2010

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You want an awesome website. Here’s what you need to do:

Pick a look and feel that reflects who you are and what you do. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Embrace your identity and make sure it’s reflected on your site.

Make your website work easy on yourself. Find a tool or system that works for you so you can engage your audience and spend less time on the technical side of your site. (That’s why we work with Wordpress but this is true for anyone, even if you choose another content management system).

Produce content. And then produce more content. Search engine love content. So do people. If that combination doesn’t alert you to the importance of content, I don’t know what will. Just create stuff that will engage your readers.

Stop it with the SEO “trickery”. Keyword stuffing, buying back links, it’s all nonsense. The real value of a website is in how much it sells for your business. By focusing on value first and SEO second (and avoiding SEO “tricks” altogether), you’ll decrease your overall readership but you’ll increase the value of the people who get to your site. Decreasing readership might seem counterintuitive but it is very important.

Freely add value. Add value for your audience. Freely give that value away and people will clamor to you for paid service. (Oh, and search engines love it, too).

Be consistent. If you blog. Blog regularly. If you have a page-based website, add content (or pages) frequently. Make sure all of your content reads the same and looks the same. If you refer to yourself as “I” on one page, don’t refer to yourself in the third person on another.

Don’t be afraid to link out. Some website owners don’t want to link out to other blogs because they are afraid someone will click away and not come back. Wake up call: If they click away, fine. If they don’t come back, your content wasn’t compelling enough. You are diminishing your value by not linking out. There’s a reason it’s called the “web”.

Engage your audience. Your website should engage people. It should make people want to come back again and again. It should stop people in their tracks. It should make them want to bookmark your site. Your audience should love to read what you have to say and should go back again and again to read more. They should forward it to their friends and relatives. They should talk about it on their websites. When you engage your audience, you will be rewarded.

How will this change your idea of running a website in 2010?

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