Archive for Google

Wordpress

Why use WordPress (self-hosted)?

Posted by Cat 
· Thursday, February 25th, 2010 
· 4 Comments

There are many great reasons to use a self-hosted version of WordPress for developing your website and blog.  Here are my top 10:

  1. Google loves WordPress (and blogs in general) because search engines favor sites that have regularly created fresh content.  See my post on SEO.
  2. WordPress is interactive.  Visitors can comment on pages and posts.  You can create a community around your business with your site.
  3. You can organize content with categories and visitors can view or subscribe to the categories they want to.
  4. You can automatically sync your content to social websites such as Facebook with the RSS feed.
  5. WordPress sites can be translatable into many languages.
  6. WordPress sites are easy to update (far easier than reglular html or Joomla).
  7. Multiple authors and editors can contribute to writing content and posting photos or video (you can DELEGATE!)
  8. You can add PayPal buttons or a shopping cart to monetize your site (you can MAKE MONEY!)
  9. You can embed video from YouTube easily (YouTube is second to Google as a search engine now!)
  10. WordPress is open-source and is constantly evolving (it’s always getting better!)
  11. 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.

4 Comments
Categories : General How-To, Google, learn wordpress, PayPal, RSS Feed Optimization, SEO, YouTube
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Comparing WordPress to Joomla

Posted by Cat 
· Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 
· No Comments

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Although most of my experience building websites has been with WordPress, I have also used Joomla and I have a few things to say about my experience with it that convinced me that I strongly prefer WordPress.

1) Ease of use

I started working with computers at a pretty young age – copying code out of PC Magazine and writing programs on our family’s Commodore-64.  Navigating the Joomla system was counter-intuitive.  I had to consult with a developer in the Netherlands to learn how to use it.  With WordPress, I figured it out on my own.

2) Visual/HTML editor

The greatest beauty of WordPress (and deep gratitude to all the PHP developers across the world who collaborated to develop the software) is that users don’t need to know html – not a wink of it.  Of course, it can be helpful in certain situations, but it is not needed.  You can copy html code into WordPress’s html editor window and then go into the visual editor to see what it will look like where you can align and adjust.  This is the golden jewel of WordPress.  Though I do know basic html, many of the people I serve have no interest in learning it.

3) WordPress can be just a website or a website with blog

WordPress does not have to be used for blogging – it can be a stand-alone website.  Blogging just happens to be a great tool for internet marketing, so using the blog component of your WordPress site is a huge bonus.

4) Google-friendly

Google finds WordPress sites much faster than regular websites due to the way the permalinks are structured.  Google loves WordPress sites.

What has your experience been with Joomla compared with WordPress?  Leave me a comment.

Here to help you make your finest dreams come true,

-Catherine

Related Articles:

http://dukecarico.com/index.php/Technology/Joomla-Vs.-WordPress.html

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/wordpress-vs-joomla-a-handy-guide

http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/technology-technical-skills/3915-wordpress-joomla-desicion.html

http://www.miracletutorials.com/wordpress-vs-joomla-review/

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Categories : General Information, Google, learn wordpress, SEO
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Manage Your Reputation

Posted by Cat 
· Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 
· No Comments

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You can help people find you on the internet by managing your Google profile.  It’s kind of fun, actually – you can add photos from a photo sharing service you use, add your Google voice phone number (or any phone number), your website/s, your superpowers and details about where you grew up and where you have lived.  With this tool you can also make sure people have the information (as little or as much) about you that you want them to have.

Here to help you make your finest dreams come true,

–Catherine

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Categories : Google
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Google Local Business Center

Posted by Cat 
· Thursday, October 29th, 2009 
· No Comments

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Here is another way you can increase your visibility on Google – register your business at Google’s Local Business Center.  It will put you on Google Maps for your business and help people locate you.  If you work from home or just want some privacy about your actual location, use a PO Box as your address so folks can at least see where your city is located in your country.

Also, see Coryon Redd’s article in the Union about this topic.

Here to help you make your finest dreams come true,

-Catherine

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Categories : General How-To, Google, learn wordpress
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Google Voice

Posted by Cat 
· Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 
· 2 Comments

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Google has a new service that is handy for folks who have multiple contact phone numbers such as home, cell and office.  You can set up Google voice so that when your customers call, 1, 2, or all of your numbers will ring.   Make yourself as accessible, or as inaccessible, as you want through the scheduling feature.  Create custom messages for certain people or groups of people.  Receive transcripts of messages by email.  Conference calls…

Learn more.

2 Comments
Categories : Google
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Stats for WordPress: Analytics or WP stats?

Posted by Cat 
· Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 
· No Comments

One of my clients just asked me if there was a way to see how many people were visiting his WordPress blog each day and my answer is yes!  There are 2 ways I recommend:

1) Google Analytics and 2) WordPress.com stats

Google Analytics is by far the most in-depth, comprehensive stats provider.  It is very useful for when you want to employ search engine optimization techniques.  However, sometimes it’s just TMI (too much information!).

WordPress.com stats is a wordpress plugin that gives you the basics in your dashboard – how many visits, keywords people used to find you, the links they clicked on while they were there, etc. Here is a screenshot of my wp.com stats since I started my e-newsletter:

stats

Which to use? Both.

Generate and schedule a weekly Google Analytics report to be delivered to your email inbox for the more detailed information – what country visitors are from, how long they were looking at your site, bounce rate, what browser they used, etc.  And add WordPress.com stats to your dashboard to get the basic facts.

If you have found this information helpful, please let me know by leaving a comment on this blog post!

Here to help you make your finest dreams come true,

– Catherine

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Categories : General How-To, learn wordpress, Plugins, SEO
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The problem with using Feedburner for email marketing

Posted by Cat 
· Monday, October 12th, 2009 
· No Comments

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Your WordPress site (or blog) comes with an RSS Feed.  Google’s free Feedburner service takes that feed and converts it to a universal format.  With Feedburner, you can also activate useful tools including a free email subscription form which allows visitors to subscribe to your feed.

The one major drawback with using Feedburner for email marketing is that you cannot edit the email template (which means you can’t add any custom branding besides your photo).  Here is a screenshot of what my most recent Feedburner email looks like:

feedburner_news

Don’t yet have a budget for a premium email marketing service?  I can help you create a custom branded e-newsletter using your WordPress blog (this is what I do with my e-newsletter). Here is what my e-newsletter currently looks like:

e-news

See the difference?  Once the process is set up, you can focus on writing your blog post and then your content will go out by email to your list.  You can save some serious money by going this route instead of hiring someone to custom design your e-newsletter every time you want to publish! Want to get started?

Here to help you make your finest dreams come true,

Catherine

P.S. I can also set up your blog to publish excerpts to Facebook, Twitter, and other social websites with my social media package.  Another great way to maximize your online presence!

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Categories : Email Marketing Tips, learn wordpress, Plugins, RSS Feed Optimization, Social Media Strategies, Twitter
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Measure your site’s effectiveness with Google Analyticator

Posted by Cat 
· Monday, September 21st, 2009 
· No Comments

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This free WordPress plugin makes it super easy to install the necessary Google code so you can access the valuable information provided by Google Analytics.  First, install the plugin through your WordPress plugin installer.  Next, create a Google Analytics account.  Then, go into the Google Analytics settings:

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Enable the plugin and copy and paste your Google Analytics ID (looks like UA-XXXXXX-X) into the plugin settings.

Now you are good to go!  You can access your stats by logging into Analytics and/or by generating a report.

For more free WordPress tips by email, subscribe to my e-newsletter:

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Categories : Analytics, learn wordpress, Plugins
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