Do you have Goals for your website? You probably set some when you first built it, but I am talking specifically about “Goals” in Google Analytics — an excellent way to track visitor behavior and analyze the R.O.I. for your web effort.  You should be tracking “conversions” (number of visitors who buy or become clients), via the “funnel” (series of pages at your site leading them to a conversion).  You can read more about this important strategy in this blog post.  Contact me to get your Goals set up.

Trusted Email Marketing

Remember to stay in constant contact. A colleague of mine, Bob Leonard from B2BContentConversations, was just hired for two jobs as a result of enewsletters he sent out several months ago.  Newsletters require discipline, but it pays off.  We offer two options to help with your email campaigns — a Pro Package through Constant Contact, and a Do It Yourself Package, where we install an excellent eNewsletter program in your WordPress website, build you a template and you go ahead and write and send a newsletter to key contacts.  Constant Contact provides your own account with support and tracking stats to see how many recipients opened your newsletter (you can take a free, 60-Day trial to check it out).  Read more about the two packages… here.  Contact me when you need help setting these key marketing tools up for your business.

New B2B Website on problematic Windows Hosting: We just finished a new B2B business blog for Wang & Wang, an international law firm, and wrestled with making it work properly in a Windows server environment.  The majority of hosting plans (like our own at WebFaddsHosting.com), are based on the Linux Operating System… the one most “friendly” to WordPress installations.  While WordPress will work on Windows based servers, a couple of key functions — automatic database backups, and “permalink” structure (see next item) — could not be activated.  Bottom line: Why did we install it on a Windows server?  That’s what the client wanted.  Does it run as well as on a Linux server?  No.  Choose a Linux based hosting solution for your dynamic WordPress based websites.

SEO Matters:  One main reason we develop dynamic websites and business blogs on the WordPress platform, is that it comes with built in/automated methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  But you have to configure it properly.  There’s automated “pinging” (your site will alert a number of indexing services when you publish new posts), but you need to input a good list of services.  There are user and search friendly “permalinks” (url structure) you can set.  And, a number of SEO related plugins which both strengthen your site, and save you some time by automating insertion of tags, titles, etc.  I’ve written a series on SEO Matters… here.  We also have a service package, “Max-SEO“, that can help you quite a bit.

Let me know when we can help with SEO strengthening, enewsletters, and development of your dynamic, automated websites. I’ll be pleased to provide a prompt estimate for your projects — reach me via our Contact Page.

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SEO Matters: Title Tag Tips…
One of the big keys to the SEO puzzle is writing good Title tags.  Do you know about them?  You can watch a video overview with tips on how to write them (make sure your key SEO phrase is in them), and get advice on how to automate them at your WordPress Business Blog here.

“Conversion Blogging” Builds eMail Lists Leading to Sales…
If you’re in business to blog, or want to blog for your business, the whole thing boils down to conversions. How many blog visitors did you convert into customers? I’m not sure who coined the phrase “Conversion Blogging”, but I highly recommend two free videos about it by Yaro Starak, a blogging guru with a successful track record. You’ll see that he teaches you how to use your blog to build your email newsletter list, and gives a lot of other great tips to help you succeed.  TIP:  pay careful attention to how Yaro is using following his own advice on his video landing page — extra-credit when you note his own conversion technique there.

Biz Growth TIP: Get Real… Real Estate Agents (and Business Bloggers)…
We’ve built a number of custom real estate blogs this year, and one common mistake I see is too many boring listings appearing on those blogs.  They’re forgetting that the best conversion process at a business blog is to engage, then converse, then gain a client (convert).  Whether you’re in real estate, or any other profession, ask yourself if your business blog engages with interesting, personal (you’re selling yourself and your sales staff) content crafted to lead toward more conversation (comments, emails, phone calls).  That’s where the success comes from in your business blog.

Custom Theme Uses our MaxRef Widgets for Content Access…
I just finished a custom blog theme for Wang And Wang Law Offices, LLC, and it uses our own Max-Ref widgets plugin for WordPress to break out access to the “Intellectual Property” section of their site.  You’ll see it there on the sidebar.  Contact me if you’d like to deploy this technique on your own WordPress website.

For more details and quotes on deploying these techinques at your own dynamic, business websites, reach me at:  scott [at] webfadds [dot] com

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By Scott Frangos, Managing Partner — WebFadds.com

Looking for ways to develop your business? Here’s an overview with tips on ways to reach and develop contacts with your clients and prospects, and ways to use new WordPress 2.6 features to create dynamic, compelling content for your CMS websites and business blogs.

New Pro eNewsletter Service Keeps you in Constant Contact…

Trusted Email Marketing

WebFadds.com has teamed up with the highly regarded Constant Contact service to bring you the ability to reach out, connect, and stay in contact with key customers and prospects.  Email Marketing by Constant Contact helps you create high-impact, professional-looking emails, and build strong, successful, and lasting relationships with your customers, clients, or members.  Why use a newsletter in addition to business blog posts? In a word, for “proactive” communication. Collect business cards and contacts at your trade shows, then make sure you connect on a regular schedule. Read More and take a FREE 60-day Trial…

Business Benefit SlideShows Focus Prospects on Results…

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, our new Business Benefit Slide Shows are worth, well… the value of a good slide presentation on how your business will help potential customers.  We recently created one for our client NextBus (see NEXTBusNews.com) which they use on their home page to explain the benefits of using their service.  Learn More…

WordPress 2.6 Helps you Get ‘Er Done…

WordPress 2.6 was released yesterday, so let’s take a look at a some ways this new version can help you get ‘er done.  I’ve included a short video overview, and highlights of some key features with tips on how they can help you develop successful content. Most of you know that our Dynamic, automated website solutions are built on the WordPress platform as a Content Management solution, and we can help you upgrade to this new version.

• Use Post Revisions to facilitate writing and editing with your content team.  Scroll down beneath your writing window to “Post Revisions” (bottom), to review your staff content writer’s work:

  [caption id="attachment_164" align="alignnone" width="411" caption="Post revisions show up in WordPress 2.6 at bottom of editing area showing time and username of writers."][/caption]

• Use Post Revisions to help you hone your writing skills. In Journalism school, writers develop skills by considering different “leads” (opening paragraphs) for their articles.  Leads are what hook your visitors and convince them to read your content.  They’re important.  Finish your first draft, then choose a different way to lead off your post (examples include a question lead, a quote lead, or a summary lead — I’ll write more about this in my series on CopyWriting here).  Compare your two drafts side-by-side, and choose the one you think will most interest your readers and grab their attention:

  [caption id="attachment_168" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Above, you can compare revisions side by side to gauge which will create a more compelling "lead" (click to enlarge)."][/caption]

• Use the new “caption” feature, as I’ve done above, to easily create captions underneath images for clarity, and also to automatically boost SEO since captions are automatically used in “Alt” tags in WordPress 2.6.

Watch the video for a quick overview of WordPress 2.6 Features:

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Here’s a quick update on some tips and techniques for content management in your dynamic WordPress websites…

WordPress 2.6 on the Way: Already in beta, WordPress 2.6 is due for release mid-summer with some great new features like “Post Revisions” (saves editing history), and improved plugin management.

New Slide Show Service: We just completed a couple of websites (Fifth Avenue Advisors, and NEXTBusNews.com with a “Business Benefit Slide Show” on the home pages. Click here to learn more about how this new service can help you convert visitors to customers.

Security Matters: WP Version 2.6 also includes some security upgrades, as each new version does, and this is good because there have been increased reports of hacking into WordPress installations recently. What to do? Stay up to date. And, if you believe your site may have been compromised, take a look at the WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin. Written by one of the WordPress core developers, it scanns your site and alerts you to suspicious activity in both your files and databases.

SEO Matters: How is your Search Engine Optimization coming? If you’re in need of backlinks that matter, and who isn’t, you can find some help in this article: Discovering Backlinks that Matter. And remember you can tighten up your SEO with our Max-SEO Optimization service.

Plugin Recommendations: We’re getting some good feedback on our new MaxRef Widgets plugin which gives you powerful control of link groups in your sidebars, and I also like the idea of new plugin, called inline Google Docs, that allows the user to embed Google Documents and Spreadsheets in posts and pages. Both require at least WordPress 2.5 — another good reason to upgrade today.

Let me know if we can help with upgrades, slide shows, and development. I’ll be pleased to provide a prompt estimate for your projects — reach me via our Contact Page.

Tags: CMS, Graphics, News, WordPress CMS Help // Add Comment »

WebFadds.com has recently completed two interesting CMS website projects — one offers a complete shopping cart built into WordPress, and the other was designed to match an existing website. Both are hosted at WebFaddsHosting.com.

Have you heard of the eastern mystic and poet — Rumi? He was a prolific writer 800 years ago, and now the Society for the Understanding of Mevlana (Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, that is) has a full CMS website solution with an integrated shopping cart to sell rare translations of his works, at sfumevlana.org.

What does CMS stand for? Content Management System. This means that pages, links, and key content is generated dynamically, and promotional feeds and pings are sent automatically. Editing is easy — much more so than “old-school” websites. If you’ve used a shopping cart, then you’ve seen content management first hand. We enjoy building website solutions on the WordPress platform, because you get the same dynamic advantages with your pages and posts, that shopping cart owners enjoy.

Above, the shopping cart is integrated into the sidebar for users, and into the administration area in WordPress for managers.

Notice that the “blog” area of sfumevlana.org is secondary to the bookstore and other CMS pages, and is not on the home page. WordPress has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a simple blogging solution to allow for just about any sort of structure you need at your sites.

The sfumevlana.org site includes our eNewsletter Installation compete with customized template shown above. The newsletter plugin we use automatically addresses items to your customers, and offers a paid subscription option. A newsletter and RSS feeds are a powerful duo to get your marketing messages out.

WordPress is very flexible. Take for example the new site WebFadds.com produced for BolenComm.com — a sales enablement provider for B2B businesses. Bob Leonard of BolenComm.com wanted to take advantage of the dynamic promotional strengths afforded by a WordPress blog, but he wanted the blog to match his existing website. Take a look:

Above, at left is the original website of BolenComm.com — while at right is the blog designed to match by WebFadds.com

To get an estimate for your own custom installation and order one today, just visit our Blog Services page. Solutions like these require a hosting plan (our WebFaddsHosting.com has excellent plans starting at $7.95mo.). Standard Installation is $79 on your server, $49 on our hosting one of our hosting plans.

WebFadds.com is a Modern Web Development Company focused on Website Services and CMS (Content Management System) website solutions built on the evolving WordPress publishing system. Reach Scott Frangos, your lead Project Manager, and Managing Partner for WebFadds.com by email at sales [at] WebFadds.com, on Skype messaging service (scottfrangos), via our Contact Page, or by phone at 360.566.2451.

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