Top Ten reasons Wordpress for Small Business beats the pants off the rest
March 28, 2008 | 6 Comments
I’ve talked a lot about Wordpress but I haven’t explained why it’s better than all the typical offerings pitched to small companies (products from Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, YellowPages.com, CitySearch, and others). Today I’ll do that in just 200 words. To accomplish my goal I’ll just hit the highlights and leave further explanation for later posts.
- It’s the tool the Pros use and there is good reason for that
- Offers you tremendous SEO out-of-the-box - this means FREE search engine marketing
- Easy to write and publish new content with no need for technical knowledge
- It can be a web site, a blog or both
- People like me all over the world are showing you how to use it - for free
- For less than $100 a year you can get an equivalent web site and blog for what you’d pay a designer or programmer $2-$5K for
- It’s really free, (called open source) only pay for web hosting
- Infinite design and feature customization
- Access to Wordpress community of contributors numbering over 10,000 to assist with design, programming, training or consulting (size of community drives competitive pricing)
- Geek stuff under the hood helping you without you needing to know Geek
Applying our three-phase local online marketing program
February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Episode 6: Time for us to get real. Time is short, money is tight, and we need ways to grow our company.
It’s time to start applying Local Na8ion’s three-phase local online marketing program in real life - the place where we’re overloaded with information and work and challenges.
We’ll do this by helping our friend Ed and his Firefighter partner get their new business Florida Fire Fitness off the ground (with hook and ladder if need be). You’ll get to come along as I chronicle each move we make.
In this video session that I recorded on SuperBowl Sunday 2008 while out for a bike ride with the kids I talk about our framework for getting you more local customers. It’s what we call our three-phase (create, publish, connect) local online marketing program.
We’ll cover the full range of topics here from the online publishing side where we’ll talk about selecting a web-host, installing Wordpress, getting the Wordpress options set up, and installing plugins to enchance Wordpress’s productivity. Did I mention web site design - yeah, we’ll do that too.
Then we’ll get into some ways to create relevant local content efficiently for Ed’s site that will draw people in from search engines and online communities and keep them coming back for more. We’ll also discuss aspects like how to optimize his site content for local search engines like Google Local and Yahoo! Local. We’ll finish by submitting Ed’s new site to local directories and guides and look at ways to utilize web 2.0 sites like Flickr and Facebook to connect with customers while increasing search engine rank.
Come on - let’s start a three-alarm fire at Florida Fire Fitness!
How to perform a Wordpress auto-install or 1-click install
February 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Episode 5: If you are a typical small to medium sized business you probably don’t have the time or expertise to install a state-of-the-art online publishing system that’s easy to update and has loads of built-in SEO (search engine optimization) goodness.
Great news - you don’t have to. Today’s budget web hosts charge around $10 a month to host, install, and upgrade Wordpress for you. That means that there’s no need to be a tech genius to get up and running TODAY on an easy-to-use content management system (Wordpress) that can replace your old craptastic web site AND give you an opportunity to have a blog at the same time.
In this 11 minute video lesson I walk you through a typical 1-click or auto-install using one of my own Wordpress web hosts - MediaTemple. Follow along and make sure to see my previous lesson about selecting a Wordpress web host if you don’t already have one.
Thanks for your attention and please post any comments or questions on our site Local Na8ion (that’s nation). And don’t forget to subscribe to our email updates or RSS subscription today. Thanks for your time.
Julian, editor Local Na8ion - where you are is where it’s at.
How to select a Wordpress host for your small business
February 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
Episode 4: There is a seemingly endless number of choices in the inexpensive web host arena to power your Wordpress web site and blog. Wondering why we recommend Wordpress for small to medium sized companies? Check out our video post on why we recommend Wordpress for your small business.
In this 15 minute lesson I show you what features matter most for busy small to medium sized companies that don’t have the time or technical skill to install and upgrade a Wordpress site on their own but who still want to take advantage of a fully customizable Wordpress install and enjoy the many state-of-the-art Wordpress features and SEO (search engine optimization) goodness that the Wordpress content management system has.
I discuss hosts that are between $6.95 a month to around $10 a month that offer:
- 1-click or auto installs
- 1-click or auto upgrades for new versions of Wordpress
- Reliable Wordpress web hosting
- inexpensive monthly and setup costs
- More than enough web site storage, bandwidth and web databases to serve even a large organization.
I also show you a great site that offers impartial reviews of Wordpress web hosts and tell you the kind of ‘review’ sites to avoid. Want to find some extra savings? Maybe a hosting affiliate that makes money by signing you up for new hosting can offer you additional savings on your monthly or setup costs? I discuss this as well.
Specific hosts I discuss include Dreamhost, AN Hosting, Midphase, and BlueHost. Just so you know, we don’t accept affilate commissions from these web hosts.
Enjoy, and let us know what questions you have by leaving us a comment on this post on Local Na8ion and don’t forget to subscribe to Local Na8ion via email or you can subscribe via RSS.
We Recommend Wordpress for Small Business
January 28, 2008 | 6 Comments
Episode 3: Here at LocalNa8ion we endorse Wordpress as the best content management system for the small to medium sized business. Not just for your blog, but for use in publishing your main web site.
It’s FREE, easy to use and update, has more built-in Local SEO Goodness than any comparable product, and you can use it to power your regular web site, not just a blog.
That’s why Local Na8ion runs our web site and our Local Marketing Blog for SME’s on Wordpress and others like The New York Times and other prominent media and content companies publish all kinds of content on Wordpress.
Did we mention that Wordpress has an active community of over 10,000 contributors? They’re busy year-round making new theme designs that you can use on your site (most are free to use) along with adding specialty features and functionality (called plug-ins in Wordpress) that do everything from power a job board, help you run a newspaper, or make the SEO goodness in Wordpress even better.
Simply put, Wordpress is an amazing tool.
Free Online Small Business Marketing and Publishing
January 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Just what do we mean by FREE and Low Cost?
Here at LocalNa8ion we show small business people how to create content, publish it online using an easy-to-update web site publishing tool AND market it online for FREE (or very low cost). Like as in FREE to $10 a month - tops. Really - no bull.
What’s the deal?
We know this sounds like a lot of marketing crap. But wait!
When we say FREE we mean that if you do it yourself it won’t cost you any money.
If you were to have a chart it would look something like this.
So, following this chart (bottom left) if you have NO time to put our do-it-yourself methods to work, than you’re going to have to pay the Piper. The Piper, aka Local Na8ion or someone else of your choice, accepts money.
If you are willing to put in your own time (that’s the top right of our oh-so-humorous chart) then you’ll only have an out-of-pocket of about $10 a month (that’s to pay for NEW web hosting). If you already have a web site host, as many business people do, it won’t even cost you $10 a month (hence the totally free promise we make on our web site). See, we weren’t pulling your leg.
By reading Local Na8ion you’ll get ideas on how to easily create content for your web site on your own, you’ll learn how to select and install (with one-click) a state-of-the-art publishing tool, and you’ll learn about free methods of online marketing that can connect you with new local customers employing methods like local search engine optimization, online word-of-mouth marketing, and blog marketing.
That’s the deal. There’s no catch. It’s the do-it-yourself model and we’re already publishing our how-to articles organized in the framework we call our local three-phase online marketing method.
Oh, you haven’t read about our local online three-phase marketing method?
Read about our revolutionary local three-phase online marketing method™: create, publish, and connect™.
Room for one more blog
January 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Episode 2:
Is your small business contemplating the use of a blog for marketing or customer outreach in your Local Search or Local Internet Marketing Plan?
Are you wondering if there’s room out on the web for one more blog?
In episode 2 of our Local Na8ion video show I ask and answer the question!
Show Notes
In episode 2 this 12:30 Local Na8ion video I talk about the latest updated blog numbers from blog search engine Technorati founder David Sifry and what that means to your own local online marketing plan. By the way, if you want a great RSS feed reader then look no further than the FREE Google Reader. If you’d like to try others, here’s a list of some of the most popular RSS feed readers from ProBlogger.
During our show I mentioned that I’d find and link to a great piece of content that describes what RSS is. I think the video below from Lee LeFever at CommonCraft more than fulfills that promise. It’s the best content I’ve found that summarizes how you can use RSS and how it will help you. Thanks to Lee LeFever at CommonCraft for making this fantastic piece (I love it!).
Top 3 secrets for local and small business blog marketing that you need to know
December 28, 2007 | 6 Comments
Short on time? Here’s the Bottom Line!
This article breaks down some main points expressed in a recent New York Times article on blog marketing for small business and shares three secrets to free blog marketing that can lead to increased sales for your business.
Julian Seery Gude of Local Na8ion discusses revolutionary small business and local Internet marketing methods involving blog marketing
Here are some important secrets that you’ve got to know about if you’re a business who sells a product or service via the web or to people in your local town or city.
An article in The New York Times small business section titled “Blogging’s a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool” gives me a perfect opportunity to share information with you about our three-phase online marketing method that will rocket your local business to the top of free local search results on leading search engines like Google and Yahoo!.
First, here are some of the top points made in the New York Times Article:
- Blogging is an inexpensive way to promote your business and build sales.
- Only 5% of small businesses have blogs today.
- Blogs may not be for all types of small businesses.
- Blogging is time consuming and requires writing skills.
Let’s take the main points from the Times article that I’ve highlighted above and cover each one quickly and then I’ll explain my top three secrets in more detail.
Blogging is an inexpensive way to promote your business and build sales.
We couldn’t agree more. With today’s FREE state-of-the-art blog publishing platforms like Wordpress, which as it happens is the same blog platform that The New York Times uses for their own blogs, ANY BUSINESS can get their blog online in as little as a day. Not only is this online publishing software free, the blog hosting ranges from free (examples include out Wordpress.com or Blogger.com) to as low as $5 a month for a custom Wordpress installation with your own web site address (URL). That’s powerful.
According to a survey by American Express only 5% of small businesses have blogs today.
Talk about opportunity. With only 5% of small businesses taking advantage of blogs you’re almost certain to get ahead of your competition by starting a blog. As the article mentions there are direct sales benefits from blogging and we’d like to point out that there are others as well. Blogging makes you think about your business, often leading to new ideas and clarity about your own product and service offerings. It connects you directly with your customer, giving both you and your customer an unfettered channel of communication. You can use this knowledge to make more sales. Unlike today’s typical small business web site, blogs are easy to update and don’t require you to know any programming to change them. Due to this and other technical factors blogs are optimized for search engines in ways that typical web sites are NOT, which means a direct and positive increase in people visiting your web site that find you through search engines. And as you already know, search engines are the main way people find anything on the web. It’s even easier if you’re only competing with businesses in direct competition in your local town or city (local search), since the search engines only show results from the zip code, town or city the searcher is looking in (this is because the search has already been refined by geography, filtering out untold results from places your local customer doesn’t care about).
Blogs may not be for all types of small businesses.
The Times article makes a point that I partially disagree with which I’ll get to in a minute. But first let’s cover what I agree with.
“…some companies are suited to blogging. The most obvious candidates, said Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of “The Everything Blogging Book” (Adams Media 2006), are consultants. “They are experts in their fields and are in the business of telling people what to do.
So far so good.
“For other companies, Ms. Risdahl said, it can be challenging to find a legitimate reason for blogging unless the sector served has a steep learning curve (like wine), a lifestyle associated with certain products or service (like camping gear or pet products) or a social mission (like improving the environment or donating a portion of revenues to charity).” said Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of “The Everything Blogging Book”
Why? Aren’t people in all walks of business experts in their field? I would argue that they are, and further, that due to that expertise, business people already have relevant content in their heads that is valuable to people looking for a particular kind of product or service. You can’t get stuck on the assumption that the only benefit from blogging is from people reading your blog. For a number of reasons, blogs can dramatically increase search engine rankings due to their built in “SEO goodness”. Even if you never gain a big following of people reading your blog, you can still increase the amount of people that find your web site and buy from you if you update a blog even once or twice a month - something well within the capability of a small business.
Blogging is time consuming and requires writing skills.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that blogging can take a huge amount of time. But it doesn’t have to. Most small to medium sized businesses can blog once or twice a month, investing one to four hours in the process and still see big gains in their search engine rankings - even more so if you’re selling your product or service to a local buyer. The Times also implies that blogs require quality writing skills (”requires writing skills”), but the blogosphere has already proven time and time again that fresh relevant content can beat nicely written prose. A small business person with a high school education (like yours truly) can still be expert in their field and share that relevant information with people that are highly interested in it.
Here’s an example. If I’m looking for a local contractor to renovate my house in my town I’m typically concerned about a few main things. Reputation, quality of work, and if the contractor will finish on time and on budget. We’ve all heard the stories haven’t we! So how am I likely to react when I find a local contractor who writes tips on their local blog about how to avoid construction scams, or how to avoid cost and time over runs? Even if the blog is written in a choppy style it’s still going to sit better with an average buyer than a Yellow Pages ad or a static web site with a list of standard services and a smiling mug shot of Bob the Builder.
With these points in mind from the Times article here are the top three secrets I promised you.
Secret 1
One of the biggest benefits to small businesses from blogs has nothing to do with blogging.
I know, it sounds strange but bare with me. Blogs are actually part of a newer sophisticated set of online publishing tools called content management systems (also known by the three letter acronym CMS). Content management systems came along in the second generation of the web and replaced the method of manually creating web content and pages that required knowledge of web programming languages (like HTML). Content management systems freed web site publishers and web masters from tiresome coding and loads of redundant work.
Instead you work with a simple web-based WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor like those found in online email tools to write and publish your content. Anyone can use these tools - no coding or programming experience is needed. All your content is stored in a nice easy-to-search database. Because it’s easier to change your blog, you end up making more frequent changes and search engines LOVE fresh content. Today’s blog content management systems also use state-of-the-art distribution methods like RSS, which utilizes XML to categorize and publish content. You don’t even need to know what RSS and XML are, you just need to know that most regular web sites don’t have them and search engines love them. Here’s the best part of this secret. Blog platforms like Wordpress, which are free to use, and can cost as little as $5 a month to host, can be used to power your regular small business web site. You don’t even need to use them as a blog. Instead you take advantage of the fact that they’re free, cheap to host, easy to update, and have built in “SEO goodness” that will increase your search engine rankings. Plus, if you decide you want to have a blog, it will already be hard wired to use for that purpose when you’re ready. Worried that using a blog platform for your main web site will mean that your web site looks like a blog? It need not. Local Na8ion’s main home page and sections like our about page or services page all have the look of a modern business web site, only the blog section really looks like a blog. Local Na8ion’s site design comes from a whopping $50 investment I made by finding a designer named Brian Gardner whom I like that makes great Wordpress themes like this one. You can do the same by firing up your search engine of choice.
When I say this is a secret, I really mean it - there are very few people in the world right now who know or think to do this. When only 5% of small businesses even have a blog, how many do you think have put it together that they can use a blog platform as a regular web site?
Secret 2
Blogging DOES NOT require a high level of writing skill.
What blogs do require is you to create and publish relevant content like articles, company news, happenings, how-to articles, tips, video, pictures, or audio podcasts. Yes, some of these (like creating video content) are more involved than others. But the basics, which include writing and adding photos, are both well within reach of the typically resourceful small business. So are the tools needed to create them: The noggin riding on your shoulders, the computer and Internet connection you’re reading this article on, and a digital camera that you or a friend or family member already has. The key here is a theme that came up earlier - relevant content. Great marketing has always been about relevant content and in today’s time-starved world that’s even more true. Relevant content is QUALITY content that both people and search engines value. Most small to medium sized businesses can blog once or twice a month, investing one to four hours in the process and still see big gains in their search engine rankings - even more so if you’re selling your product or service to a local buyer.
Secret 3
Blogs are good for ANY KIND OF BUSINESS.
As long as you want more buyers coming to your web site or store you should employ a blog platform for your main web site and a blog to help you publish fresh content. You can replace expensive and ineffective methods of advertising, fire your web site programmer, and ditch the middle men that stand between you and the people you’d like to call clients by speaking directly with them through your web site and blog. When people walk into your store, call you, or email you they’ll already be acquainted with you and how you can really help them. Just from reading your blog they’ll feel like they know you and that’s a real advantage when it comes to closing the sale.
Some parting tips:
Did you notice at the end of The Times article that two free resources for optimizing search engine traffic and rankings were mentioned? They are Google Analytics and Site Meter - don’t be afraid, be excited that there’s more free stuff to increase your sales.
Go to the blog of one of the featured businesses in The Times article, Crowdvine. The post has some good points that I think you’ll find valuable. Also, be sure to read the web site footer and notice which free, state-of-the-art blog content management system Crowdvine uses to publish their blog. Yes, the very same Wordpress that we recommend business owners use to publish their web site and their blog on - the same system The New York Times uses for their own blogs.
Timing is everything - why NOW is the time for a revolution in local Internet marketing
December 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Episode 2: In this twelve minute LOCAL Na8ion video I talk about the three reasons that NOW is the right time to use new revolutionary tools and methods to market your local business online.
LOCAL Na8ion Video Welcome Message
December 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Episode 1: Do you NEED more local customers or more of the right kind of local buyers?
Don’t have a marketing budget or you’re sick of paying for expensive LOCAL ads that don’t work?
Like to know ways to know FREE and LOW-COST methods to design and publish your web site and blog and market it online?
LOCAL Na8ion is a free resource for any business that needs to connect with local buyers for next-to-nothing, using revolutionary online tools and methods.
This is Local Na8ion - because where you are is where it’s at!
Subscribe via eMail, RSS, or iTunes
What is Local Na8ion
Who is Local Na8ion
Let's Talk
Recent Comments
- Whiteway Outdoor Advertising - Live Search Local on Legacy
- Onward SmallBiz - on Your web site should be your star sales person
- Emil on Get listed in local online directories in one easy step
- Articles on Your web site should be your star sales person
- Julian on Cast a wide net with local online directories
Highest Rated
- Eight successful traits for entrepreneurs and life
- Episode 8: 28 minutes to better Google Local search results
- Top Ten reasons Wordpress for Small Business beats the pants off the rest
- Small business owners can turn to Tiger Woods for inspiration
- Get free conference calls
- Timing is everything - why NOW is the time for a revolution in local Internet marketing
- We Recommend Wordpress for Small Business
- How to select a Wordpress host for your small business
- Review of Apple MacBook for Small Business - Display Dismay
- Episode 11: Local Search Engine Optimization in Three Easy Steps
