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.

Tags: News, WordPress CMS Help by admin
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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.

Tags: News, WordPress CMS Help by Partner
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by Scott Frangos, Managing Partner - WebFadds.com

Time to upgrade WordPress? Just wave your wand — well almost… there are a couple of tricky things to avoid. WordPress puts out 2-4 upgrades per year, with a major upgrade about every ten months. We do upgrades for $49 (on our servers), or $79 (on your server) — we’ll include six essential plugins, and twelve themes.

Avoid a big trap — do not use the automatic upgrade utility your host provides, like Fantastico, or our own Elefante Installer at WebFaddsHosting.com. Why? Two reasons. If you installed WordPress originally using a clean manual install (as we do it), then this will most likely pull your site down — and require more time and expense to restore it.

If you originally installed with an auto-installer, then it might go ok — when the installer company and your hosting company get around to including the newest edition of WordPress. Even so, you are relying on the auto-installer, another program on top of WordPress and everything else, to manage things. This adds another layer of software, and complexity, when you need to troubleshoot website problems. So again, it’s best to do it manually.

What about plugins that do automatic upgrades? Elsewhere I wrote of a plugin I liked for a while — but then I had a problem with an upgrade and had to reinstall from scratch. Make you nervous? That’s why I went to manual installs as standard policy. But never fear, here are five steps to keep your data safe as you upgrade:

Steps for a smooth WordPress Upgrade

1. Perform two backups: With our standard installation we include a plugin which you can use to download an immediate database back-up to your hard disk. That’s back-up number one. Back-up number two is done using the “Manage>Export” function in your Admin. area to download an XML file of your data. Now you’re double protected.
   
   Above, the backup plugin (configured for you in our standard installation), should be used to “download to your computer,” a complete backup to disk prior to upgrading WordPress.

2. Turn off all Plugins: Turn them off in the plugin area to avoid any conflicts during the upgrade process. You can print or save the page first so you remember which ones were on and which were off.
3. Download the latest Version: Get the latest version of WordPress and unzip it.
4. Perform the Upgrade: If you are doing it yourself, go to the WordPress codex and follow instructions there (be sure to delete the appropriate files prior to the upgrade using FTP, and to retain the appropriate files without overwriting them).
5. Restore your Plugins: Turn them back on and cross your fingers… if the plugin author is on the ball, their program will work with the latest version of WordPress.

And, on that last point about Plugins working with new versions of WordPress — a good policy is to wait a few weeks after a major upgrade of WordPress, and check at your essential plugin author’s site to see if there’s a notice that it is compatible with the newest version of WordPress. You may have to limp along for a while without a couple plugins until they are updated.

Remember that the nature of WordPress is that it is a collaborative symphony of software components. People have asked me, what if a plugin author walks away and does not upgrade a plugin? This has happened. Sometimes a new author takes their place and gives the plugin a much needed facelift and retrofit. Sometimes you can hire an independent PHP programmer to customize the plugin or write one from scratch. Sometimes there’s a new plugin that performs a similar function. Sometimes… you just have to walk away, like the plugin author did. What? Just remember, you didn’t pay anything for the original program… and you should really “tip” your plugin developers (most have paypal links in the admin. area) so they stay motivated and focused on their work.

Contact WebFadds.com, and we’ll do all the steps listed for you when you need to upgrade your WordPress website.

Tags: Hosting, News, WordPress CMS Help by Partner
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We just finished installations of dynamic blogs for five Real Estate companies, and we get a lot of questions about “what do I do next,” after the blog is installed — from Real Estate agents, and clients in other industries. One key secret of Social Marketing using your own blog is making regular posts. That’s right. At least three times a week, you need to type up a post and submit it via your blog to take advantage of syndication feeds (your WebFadds.com blogs and CMS websites include RSS feeds), automatic “pinging”, and for search engines to rank your blog highly based on frequency of new content.

What else do you need to do to be successful at social media marketing in the real estate industry? Here’s your list of Ten Online Marketing Tips for Real Estate Professionals:

1. Submit your Blog and RSS feeds to Real Estate specific search sites like Zillow.com, and Trulia.com.
   
   Above, Zillow.com offers free marketing options for Real Estate Agents. TIP: You can submit listings via a feed, and if one of your WordPress blog categories contains listings, then submit the feed for that specific category.

2. 

   Configure your blog smartly for SEO — Search Engine Optimization. We can do that for you with our “Max-SEO” service, or you can do it yourself with our SEO Plugin Collection for WordPress.

3. Structure your blog smartly, from your prospects’ point of view. If you are a Real Estate agent, you need to set up categories in WordPress, and include at least three that are similar to: “Recent Listings,” “About the Area,” and “Financial Resources.” Mortgage and Finance Professionals should include “Financing Options,” “Investing Tips,” and “Credit Help.” You will probably think of a few more.
4. Make sure your blog is set to “ping” appropriate services that store, track, and announce new blog posts. There’s a good list of ping services to use here. We install a master ping list as part of our “Max-SEO” service.
5. Remember that in addition to factual posts about listings, you are also building credibility, and making pre-sales connections, so you need to write in a personable way. Engage your prospect. Invite comments on your blog, and reply promptly. Think of talking to them in a conversational way when you write these posts. Here’s a reference article to help you — Top 10 Blog Writing Tips.
6. Write at least 3 posts per week. This takes advantage of your blog’s automatic marketing (RSS feeds, and pings), and also tells search engines that your blog is alive and providing valuable content on a regular basis. And if you need some more inspiration, for ways to write that engage your potential customers, I recommend this post at “Content Marketing Today”.
   
   Above, at recent custom blog installation by WebFadds, agents post articles about local economics, and the process of building a home in addition to recent listings.
7. Market your blog, and RSS feed. Tell your prospects to subscribe to your RSS feed so they get the latest updates on deals. Put your blog address in all marketing materials.
8. Install a proactive newsletter program for WordPress. Why — isn’t RSS and pinging enough? Well, they are great ways to get the word out, but they’re reactive — they rely on your prospects to sign up for your feed, or to surf to the sites that feature your pings. With a newsletter, you can send updates, alerts, promotions, etc., direct to a list of prospects. We have an excellent program we install and configure for you with our eNewsletter Configuration service.
9. Work with other allied professionals to “cross-post” on their blogs, always with a link back to your own blog. This continues to build the image of you as an expert, garners wider exposure, and forges key alliances. And, part of the SEO game is getting good solid links to your blog — Google, for one, counts these toward your ultimate “score” as it gauges the relevance of your blog/website.
10. Get a dynamic, automated WordPress blog from WebFadds.com — installation is $49 on our hosting servers (WebFaddsHosting.com), or $79 on yours. This is step one of your online marketing solution because now you will have a professional system that will automate some of the tasks for getting the word out online.

Follow these tips to maximize the reach and impact of your blog, it’s content, and ultimately your own sales potential.

About the Author: Scott Frangos is Managing Partner for WebFadds.com, a modern web development firm focused on dynamic blog and website solutions for your business mission online — reach him at the contact page at WebFadds.com, or at 360.566.2451.

Tags: Advertising, News, WordPress CMS Help by Partner
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WebFadds.com recently completed custom installations of WordPress websites for two real estate companies, designed to synchronize their new blog with the existing main websites of the agencies.

“We custom programmed the navigation system to synchronize with the main, existing websites for these real estate agencies using the Content Management System features of WordPress, and finished the work by installing Search Engine Optimization functions on both sites,” explains Scott Frangos, Managing Partner for WebFadds.com.

Navigation Enhancements: Below, the navigation links of the blog for JohnsonsTahoeRealEstate.com link integrally into the main website, so that visitors move seamlessly between the new blog and key existing website pages like New Listings, and Listing Search pages:

Custom Redesign: Below, before and after screenshots show the templates used to build the new blog areas, and how they looked after a custom graphic redesign to match the existing websites:

Above, JohnsonsTahoeRealEstate.com blog before and after template customization.

Above, RealEstate-LakeTahoe.com blog before and after template customization.

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 Blog 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.

Tags: Graphics, News, WordPress CMS Help by Partner
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