There are many great reasons to use a self-hosted version of Wordpress for developing your website and blog. Here are my top 10:
Google loves Wordpress (and blogs in general) because search engines favor sites that have regularly created fresh content. See my post on SEO.
Wordpress is interactive. Visitors can comment on pages and posts. You can create a community around your business with your site.
You can organize content with categories and visitors can view or subscribe to the categories they want to.
You can automatically sync your content to social websites such as Facebook with the RSS feed.
Wordpress sites can be translatable into many languages.
Wordpress sites are easy to update (far easier than reglular html or Joomla).
Multiple authors and editors can contribute to writing content and posting photos or video (you can DELEGATE!)
You can add PayPal buttons or a shopping cart to monetize your site (you can MAKE MONEY!)
You can embed video from YouTube easily (YouTube is second to Google as a search engine now!)
Wordpress is open-source and is constantly evolving (it’s always getting better!)
OK one more: Wordpress is easy to learn!
There are more advanced reasons that concern templates, tags and permalinks, but the 10 reasons listed above should satisfy most folks who need a fast and easy way to get their business website up and running.
Here is a screenshot of what Wordpress looks like from the back-end:
Live in Nevada County and want to learn more about Wordpress in person? Come to my free class.
Brenda and Chuck Horton have created an exceptional self-paced online training program that is affordable and highly relevant for businesses of every shape and size. Whether you are just getting started with social media marketing or you have been using social media for some time, I am highly confident that you will learn something new from this training.
I took this course a couple of months ago and I am still implementing the HWare strategies for my Wordpress Web Weaving business. It’s a course that I plan to re-visit over and over again, at my own pace, to glean all the tips and techniques for using social media in the most effective ways (and also how NOT to use social media!).
<–Click here to get started!
If you are not completely satisified with this course, HWare offers a 125% money-back guarantee. WOW!
This training covers the importance of creating a social media plan using Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging with Wordpress.
“The information about the evolution of social networking and specific internet marketing strategies was enlightening. I left the call with specific actions to take to increase my visibility and went to work that day to implement what I learned. I can’t wait to learn more strategies! For anyone who is new to social networks, or wants to increase their proficiency at social networking, do NOT miss this Course! I only wish I had taken it 6 months ago!!” – Sonika Tinker, Relationship Expert
Who is it for?
Small Business Owners
Entrepreneurs
Start-ups
Non-profits
Coaches
Marketers
Salespeople
Virtual Assistants
Work-at-home-moms/dads
Anyone trying to get there hands around Social Media
A Web Weaver™ monthly retainer agreement is a written document and mutually beneficial exchange of monies and services, co-created between 2 parties through dialogue and email. The monetary exchange is pre-paid through a recurring PayPal transaction or with check or cash.
The retainer agreement allows a client to purchase a set number of Web Weaving™ hours per month, thereby engaging the Web Weaving services regularly over a period of time, with a minimum commitment of 6 months. Hours may not be carried over to the next month if not used.
Making a retainer agreement represents a higher level of commitment from both parties to an ongoing working partnership that supports successful outcomes (such as increased website traffic, growing an email list, growing sales, improving social media reach, etc.) through ongoing site improvements, attention and communication about the effectiveness about the Web Weaving services applied to the Wordpress site.
“Web Weaving™” is a term that describes a process of blending skill sets for the purposes of comprehensive internet marketing strategy. A Web Weaver™ may use some or all of the following skills to market a product, service or business online:
Need to delegate internet marketing to someone else or just don’t have the time to do it? Hire a Web Weaver™!
Catherine Scholz synthesizes the best internet marketing tools available: Wordpress, SEO, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, podcasting to iTunes and more.
She also trains other Web Weavers™ how to use these tools to jump start their internet marketing strategy.
Hire Catherine to be your Web Weaver™ (monthly retainers start at $144/month), or sign up a member of your staff to learn how to become a Web Weaver™ for your business.
This screenshot of Patt Lind-Kyle’s home page shows one of my favorite Wordpress add-ons: the Featured Content Gallery (FCG). This plugin allows Wordpress users/designers to add a rotating image gallery to the home page that links to featured blog posts when clicked on. Here is another Wordpress site that uses FCG (DrMillerBlogs.com):
Adding a Featured Content Gallery to an exisiting Wordpress site involves designing custom images and associating them with the featured posts. The total cost for this add-on depends on how many images are requested and ranges from $76-$152. Ongoing maintenance or changes are billed at my hourly rate of $38.
If you would like to add a Featured Content Gallery to your site, call me at (530) 362-8586 or send an email to cat @ catswebweave.com.
Local Green Sierra is a new business directory (powered by Wordpress) initiated by Lorily Lachman (Alpine Green Living Magazine). The byline for the site is “A directory of businesses in the Northern Sierra that are making an effort at being green.” This website’s design and functionality are both still under development, but I thought you might like to know about it – especially if you have a “green” business or want to “go green” with your business.
If you have any ideas to share, please feel free to leave me a comment.
May all your wishes come true this holiday season!