Which Update Should I Do FIRST In WordPress???
I was in the StudioPress forum the other day after WordPress came out with their latest update, along with Genesis coming out with an update as well…apparently, some site owners had problems because they applied the update for Genesis first, then their site went down, leaving them unable to login or see the site. There “is” an order when thinking about updates…
- WordPress itself
- Theme
- Plugins
I try to use the automatic update process through WordPress instead of the manual update on the host server end. It’s easier to accept an update and just follow the prompts for most of my clients, so that’s what I do.
ALWAYS remember to do an “export” under your Tools bar (left side of dashboard) to export an .xml file of all your posts and pages at least once a week so you have that .xml file as backup.
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Nancy Golliday
Website / Blog (re)Design for Marketing Results
FirstCoastDesigns.Com
Nancy@FirstCoastDesigns.com
912.673.8238 (Office/Home)
912.322.2858 (Mobile)
Will My Self-Hosted WordPress “Look” Like a Blog or Website?
It can look however you want it to look! WordPress with any theme allows for showcasing a “page” as the home page or “blog” as the home page.
Samples of a Page as the Home Page…
FigTreeInn.Com (client is using this as their main website and blog site)
Samples of Blogs as the Home Page…
RIHouseHunt.Com (client is using this as their main website and blog site)
GoldCanyonHomes.Net (client is using this as just the blog site – they have a main website on another platform)
So keep this in mind when you’re thinking about your online presence and budget…you get the best of both worlds with a self-hosted WordPress site!
Theme Cost: Avg. $70-200
Host Cost: Avg. $50-70 per year
Domain Cost: Avg. $10/year
Click here for more information on Self-Hosted WordPress Sites and what we can do for you!
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Nancy Golliday
Website / Blog (re)Design for Marketing Results
FirstCoastDesigns.Com
Nancy@FirstCoastDesigns.com
912.673.8238 (Office/Home)
912.322.2858 (Mobile)
Video Tutorials for Point2 Agent, WordPress, Facebook!
Your very own video tutorials using your own site(s) during the step-by-step process. And only get what you need! So far we’ve been able to provide clients with the following after the customization is complete…
VIDEO TUTORIALS BASED ON YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS…
- Adding Pages to Custom Navigation Menu (Point2 Agent)
- Working with Page Content (Point2 Agent & WordPress)
- Working with Tables (Point2 Agent & WordPress)
- Adding Listings to Pages by Town / Neighborhood (Point2 Agent)
- Replacing Custom Header in Your Site (Point2 Agent & WordPress)
- Working with Graphics in Your Site (Point2 Agent & WordPress)
- Working with the Featured Content Gallery (Agent Press for WordPress)
- Working with the Slider (Genesis Framework for WordPress)
- Working with Hooks (Thesis & Agent Press for WordPress)
- Working with Facebook Business (Fan) Pages
- Working with FBML in Facebook Business (Fan) Pages
- Incorporating Video / Flash into Facebook FBML
- Creating Custom You Tube Channels for Websites
Video Pricing available upon request.
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Nancy Golliday
Website / Blog (re)Design for Marketing Results
FirstCoastDesigns.Com
Nancy@FirstCoastDesigns.com
912.673.8238 (Office/Home)
912.322.2858 (Mobile)
Summit County Mortgage LLC on StudioPress!
Latest addition to the portfolio – Summit County Mortgage LLC – using StudioPress Lifestyle theme. Summit County Mortgage LLC provides traditional and specialty mortgages to buyers in Summit County Colorado.
StudioPress offers a lot of great themes to choose from. Select a single theme or the whole collection available at a great price – Click here to get your StudioPress theme!
Organizing Your Blog Posts…5 Tips for Bloggers!
Organizing Your Blog Categories
Getting your blog categories organized should be a straight forward task, but too many people seem to get confused when structuring their categories. Below you will find 5 practical tips for organizing and making your categories more efficient:
1. Make Your Category Names Descriptive: categories should navigate even 1st visitors across your blog. An old time reader will certainly know that under the category “Uncle John” there will be all your posts containing Blogging tips coming from your uncle John Smith who works at WordPress, but I will not! The categories tell a lot about your blog, and when readers can not figure what is going on around them it is very likely that they will just skip the blog altogether.
2. Limit the Number of Categories: there is a reason why this is called “category” and not “every single post that was written on this blog,” meaning that you should not create a new category for every other post that you are writing. Every blog should have a defined structure and a set of categories to support the topics of the posts, once you have that basic structure in place just fill the posts inside the existing categories, creating a new category should be done rarely and only when it is really necessary.
3. Make Sure Categories Fit in First Screen View: if you ask me how many categories your blog needs the answer would probably be: it depends. Some blogs will work well with few categories, others will need 10 or even 20, just make sure that all the categories fit in one screen. Why? Because it’s annoying to have to scroll down to see the complete list. If a return visitor is trying to figure where a specific post was placed, once they get to the bottom of your categories they will probably have forgotten what was on the top.
4. Try to Put Posts in One Category Only (if possible): as a rule of thumb every time I write a post I try to place it inside one category only. If I placed posts inside multiple categories the reader would find the same posts over and over again, which is not cool, to say the least. Exceptions can be made when a certain post really touches more than one category, but those situations are more rare than what most people seem to think.
5. Display the Number of Posts Inside Each Category: if your blog platform allows you to display the total number of posts inside each category do it. This feature will make sure that the reader knows what to expect when he clicks a certain category, and it also gives a general orientation about the most discussed topics on your blog.
Happy Blogging!
Top 5 Tips to Creating a Top Blog Site!
Focus on Your Post Titles. Titles draw traffic. Be creative. Not only do they capture the attention of potential readers, but those search engines love blog titles. A rule of thumb is to keep your title under 10 words.- Be Consistent in Your Posts – Be consistent when starting out. Try and post at least 3 times a week, preferably every other day.
- Keep it Simple – Don’t get caught up in the length of your posts. They don’t have to be long. They can be random thoughts or tidbits of news regarding your industry. The key is to make them interesting.
- Allow Comments – You can moderate comments, but comments create the viral effect by allowing your readers to interact with you. You will also want to research and comment on relevant industry related blogs.
- Give Your Blog “Personality” – Let your personality shine through in your blog posts.
Small Business Blogging Success!
Successful Blogging for Small Businesses
It might seem like everyone has a presence on the web—a blog or a Facebook page, twitter, etc.—but that certainly isn’t true for small-business owners. Only about 41 percent have their own interactive websites. So, if folks can’t even manage the business basics, a blog is probably low on their priority list.
To some business owners, blogging can seem less worthwhile than a website because of some bloggers’ reputation for being self-absorbed and trivial.
Small business owners are quickly finding it a great way to drive Internet traffic to their business’s Web page and get more people to notice their business. Blog-generating services like WordPress automatically format blogs in such a way that search engines can pick up on words and phrases. And, of course, the more you update , the better chance you have of turning your blog into a must-read site. For those reasons, a blog gives small-business owners the ability to show up much higher in the Google rankings than any kind of static website!
Getting Google hits can be a marketing plan in and of itself, simply because so many potential customers turn to Google before anything else when looking for a service.
So how does a busy small business owner make sure the valuable time he or she spends blogging isn’t going to waste?
- Be a reader of blogs. Blogging has its own unique language that is different from other forms of writing. To understand how to speak that language yourself, it helps to regularly follow at least a few other blogs. Find blogs in your areas of interest. Becoming a fan of blogs pays off for small business owners because it gives them plenty of places to post comments—which directs people to your blog and/or website.
- Don’t stress about it too much. Even though being a successful blogger takes work, trying to do too much can be almost as bad as never updating your blog. Posting 3-5 times a week is sufficient.
- Don’t Keep Promoting Yourself – That is a big turnoff in the blogosphere. A better way to approach blogging is to give the readers what they want: useful, specialized information that comes from your own experience. Business owners who deal with practical issues every day are in a unique position of knowledge to write top-10-style “how-to” lists. That format often gets a lot of attention on the web.
- Tell a story without ranting. Many blogs on the Internet have a personal diary-like quality to them, where the author keeps a daily track of what’s going on in his or her life. It can be good to add a personal touch to your blog about your business topic because it humanizes you and might make the reader more interested in your business. But don’t overdo it. Long rants about personal subjects will get in the way of conveying the information that makes you sound like a credible source—which is why most business people start blogging in the first place. Let people know enough about you to connect.