Why your website is your Most Valuable Player

Why your website is your Most Valuable Player

Content Marketing Website Management

At the forefront of any online marketing strategy your very own website will certainly be at the core.

It does not matter how many different web properties you have; You will never have total control of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc;. Social media platforms rise and fall like the stock market and their policies are forever changing.

A modern and technologically up-to-date website is the core of any marketing strategy. You can change the look and feel, the content, and how it exists on the web at your whim. Think of your website as the sun and other platforms as planets. Your website is where you unleash energy (aka content) to be distributed to the people of each planet (aka social media platform).

For example, depending on your target audience, some may use Facebook more than twitter or just twitter and not Facebook.

Here at TwyLyfe Multimedia Marketing, our team of web design and web development professionals are ready
to help you take charge of your internet presence. From fully custom websites to more budget friendly semi-custom sites, we are here to educate and assist in making your ideas become reality.

Whether you already have a website or just looking, give us a call and we can answer your questions and concerns to ensure you are an educated consumer – whether you decide to partner with TwyLyfe or with another firm!

What is a webinar or web conferencing?

Content Marketing

In case you haven’t caught on yet, a webinar (or web conference) is an online meeting where participants can join no matter where they physically are. They typically consist of audio (phone and/or VOIP using a headset) and slideshow presentations. Some also include videoand HD webcam support so everyone can see each other, or at least the host.

Webinars can be fun, interactive, less intimidating, and definitely easier than having everyone drive/fly/walk to one place for a meeting!

While I personally use GOTOMEETING since my friends work at Citrix, a Survey of 6 top webinar services can be found here.

 

What do you want them to do next? (Call to Action) CTA

Content Marketing

OK, now you have your readers attention. You just provided them with high quality information that only a guru (in their mind) would know. They are happy and feel enlightened.

What do you want them to do next? We need a CTA (call to action) to maximize the impact of the content.

More commonly you will see something like

“To learn more about how apples can be turned into gold nuggets, call us at 800-555-5555.”

Aside from this, why not link them to another article to keep their attention if they are not ready to contact you yet?

A revised example from above could be something like:

“To learn more about how apples can be turned into gold nuggets, check out our video demonstration on how to turn apples into gold nuggets (insert link here), or call us at 800-555-5555.”

People love choices; even if it’s just two. Market research shows that people prefer THREE choices, so adding an email address wouldn’t hurt either, or just link them to your contact form.

On a side note, keeping your contact information visible on ALL web pages is also very good standard practice. This could be in the bottom (footer) area or anywhere else deemed suitable.

Want to learn more about content marketing? Click for more content marketing articles.

Basics of Business Marketing with your Blog

Guerrilla Marketing

What is a blog?

Although full details and history can be found at Wikipedia, here’s the down and dirty basics.

The modern blog as we see it today evolved from online diaries. These websites were run by average people so they could express their personal opinions and/or share their lives with random strangers as a release from the real world.

The emergence of free and easy to use (CMS) content management systems or blogging platforms
has given businesses and individuals the power to create content for their customers to FIND. Moreover, consider utilizing paystub templates for efficient payroll management.

 Standard Blogging Guidelines:

Before going nuts writing content, keep these rules in mind.
Don’t write for the sake of it. Quality over quantity. Remember it’s a two fold audience – search engines AND humans. However, since Google commands a substantial search volume, their new algorithm updates (such as PANDA), are more able to recognize quality content. The days of keyword stuffing and spam techniques are practically over.

Define the purpose of your content

Rule of Thumb:
Publish QUALITY Content people will want to SHARE
and the Search Engines will NOTICE

It is easy to get off topic so define the purpose of your content before writing.

  • What question is it answering?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • Who do you want to read it?
  • What do you want them to do next? (Call to action)

It is good to educate others to increase your “guru status” while leaving them wanting more.

Create a schedule for writing

Sounds simple and stupid but very few people can actually mentally keep track of when they should write new content.

I recommend spending a couple hours at the beginning of the month to come up with fresh relevant topics people will want to learn or listen to. Set reminders in your calendar when you will write blog posts. Whether it’s once a month or twice a week, JUST DO IT and keep with your schedule.

Just like going to the gym, once you fall off, it’s easy to keep forgetting. But the beauty is, once you are in your groove, it’s easy to stay on top of it! Just keep in mind, “Would my typical customer be interested in this?”

Make the headline of your article grab people!

With the millions of blogs out there, you will want to focus on the headline of your article. This is extremely important as internet users have a very short attention span. Here are some ideas for killer headlines.

Categorize and tag everything

Write as a person, not robot or PHD nuclear scientist (aka layman’s terms)

Write as you would speak to your friends and family. Keep it casual and informative. DO NOT sound like a pushy sales person and stay away from phrases that you would see in a late night infomercial, (i.e. The best widgets, premiere performers, top awarded) unless you can back it up with proof such as awards and certifications. Regardless, unless its a very well known award, your quality content will speak higher of you.

seoexperts360
Phone: +13036301380
Url: https://seoexperts360.com/
720 S Colorado Blvd Tower 1120, Denver, CO 80246, United States
denver, CO 80246

Ideas for Killer headlines

Search Engine Marketing Search Engine Optimization

It’s obvious that headlines are probably the most important factor in garnering interest for your content.

Here are several examples of how to create killer headlines:

 

  • Summarize the content

    Sum up the article in one short sentence – short but concise

  • Explain “HOW TO”

    sdvdvdws

  • Ask a question, or provide a statement to peak interest

    “How much is too much blogging?”
    “How to negotiate like a pro”
    “What we can learn from Pink Flamingos”

  • Contradict the obvious:

    Some examples could be:
    “How to be rude while sounding nice”
    “M&N’s melt in my hand, not my mouth”
    “Why Web 2.0 is really 1.0”

  • Use numbers, especially odd ones:

    Some examples could be:
    “5 ways to cook your steak”
    “13 powerful ways to appear smarter”
    “33 tips for surviving college”

  • Use weird analogies:

    some examples could be:

More Random Article Headline Writing Tips:

  • Use strong present-tense verbs
  • Avoid “padding” words such as “a, and, the”
  • PROOF READ and PROOF READ again!

 

If you have any tips for better headlines, please comment below!

Five Ways to Secure Your WordPress Site

Security Website Management

As of 4-23-2013, WordPress.com says there are over 64,551,486 users on the hosted WordPress.com.    This doesn’t even mention how many are installed locally.
In fact, WordPress.com users produce about 49.3 million new posts and 50.7 million new comments each month.

It is hands down one of the most popular CMS (content management system) available for FREE.

The self hosted version can be found on wordpress.org.

In the last couple years, I’ve noticed DJ’s building their websites on the WordPress CMS platform due to the ease of installation and use. Excellent themes average from FREE to $75 or more and save thousands in development costs. It literally takes 5 minutes to install provided you have the database name and password.

Being popular has its pros and cons – and one major con is the fact that wordpress self hosted sites are hacked like cows for a steak house. Lucky for us there are plenty of security tips and plugins we can utilize to combat this. Here are a few that I personally recommend!

    1. Protect your WP-CONFIG file –
      Edit your .htaccess file

      EDIT the .htaccess file and ADD the following
      (it is in the root of the wordpress installation, same folder as index.php)

      <files wp-config.php>
      order allow,deny
      deny from all
      </files>

    2. Monitor your wordpress files –
      Install the “WordPress Sentinel” plugin.

      This plugin acts as a sentinel that watches over your core WordPress programs (plus installed themes and plugins) and tells you when changes happen. Always have an up-to-date backup of your files! Hackers like to inject hidden code in your files that attempt to download malware to visitors machines. Most of the time we won’t even know it’s been tampered.

    3. Protect email addresses from Bots –
      Install the “Email Encoder Bundle” plugin.

      Emails in your posts and pages can be stolen by email harvesting bots for bulk email and spam purposes. Encode mailto links and (plain) email addresses on your site and hide them from spambots with this plugin. Activates once installed. No configuration needed.

    4. Change the default admin login URL –
      install the “Lockdown WP admin” plugin.

      Lockdown WP Admin conceals the administration and login screen from intruders. It can hide WordPress Admin (/wp-admin/) and and login (/wp-login.php)

    5. Keep a backup of your files and database –
      Install the “Simple Backup” plugin.

      No matter what happens make sure you keep an up to date backup of all your files and database! Simple Backup Plugin for WordPress lets you create and download backups of your WordPress website. Plugin can also optionally perform many common optimizations to wordpress and MySQL Database before backup.

There you go guys, 5 easy ways to harden your wordpress installation in a few minutes. It’s not lojack but it’s better than having your windows wide open.

Last but not least, don’t forgot to use complex passwords (lower case, upper case, number, symbol) and/or use a password that isn’t real words.

Until next time, play safe and take care of each other!

– Sean Juan
TwyLyfe.com
Marketing & IT Professional