Tag: Wordpress

Blogging Tip: Send a meeting inviteApril 16th, 2013

Content is king. We all know this, right? We know if we regularly add relevant content to our websites that they we will perform better in searches. No tricks, no bs, just pure content. Blogs have made publishing content easy and extremely search friendly. Your website visitors will enjoy the content and you are giving them a reason to return again and again. You just need to publish content on a regular basis.

Sounds easy, right? WRONG. You are a busy professional, and you just can’t seem to find the time to write.

I regularly hear the following from my clients:

• I am going to write something and get it to you this week.   (Reality: they rarely do)
• I got really busy and didn’t have a chance.
• I don’t know what to write about
• I am going to start writing starting next week
• I forgot

Now I understand, setting aside time is hard.   So that is why I am giving you an easy tip that will help.   Send yourself a recurring meeting invite. Then it will appear on your calendar each week. (or how often you want to post) This will force you treat writing content as a part of your normal schedule. You will get in the habit.  As an example, I attend a networking meeting each week on Wednesdays.  I am a member of BNI.  Each week we all do a 50 second speech.  As I know I need to have something to talk about, I set aside time every Tuesday. I write my blog and from that I paraphrase into my 50 second.

As easy as WordPress is, you still have to log in and post.  Since we specialize in website maintenance, we typically receive posts from clients and we do the rest.  We are happy to, and we know in the long run our clients succeed and perform better in searches. If you don’t have anyone to help you post, or if you have no blog or way to publish content, contact me, I am happy to help.

 

The WordPress Myth: Manage Your Own WebsiteJanuary 14th, 2013

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”  ~Napolean Bonaparte

In many cases I would have to agree with the little guy. But he died centuries before WordPress and other Content Management Systems came to be.

I am a big fan of what WordPress has become.  Starting as a great way to blog it has matured into a superb CMS.  But the one thing I disagree with is that it is easy for a non-technical user to manage. There are constant updates needed to the software and plugins.  As many of these changes are to shore up security concerns, you can’t ignore them or put yourself in jeopardy of being hacked.

So a few questions:
Do you feel comfortable making the changes to your WordPress and plugins?
Have you made changes to your theme? If you update the theme files, will your customizations be wiped out? (this happens when there is no child theme)
Do you have a backup plugin in place in case one of the updates cripples your site? (it happens)

Setting Up a WordPress Website
Although the thousands of available themes look nice and fit the requirements of many businesses, they are not all easy to set up.  The more available features, the longer it takes to get up and running.

Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, WordPress is fabulous, you certainly can blog yourself, edit content, add photos and more with little or no help.  But unless you have the time and the skillset needed to keep your WordPress site up to date, hire a professional to help you to set up and manage your website.