May

10

2011

How To Remove Credit Links in WordPress

By
Administrator
 – May 10, 2011Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

Credit links are links placed by theme developers (usually in the footer) that link back to their website. Most WordPress themes have these links especially the free themes. Since WordPress is under GPL license, you are allowed to remove this link from any of the free themes your download from WordPress.org. To learn more about GPL licensing, visit http://wordpress.org/about/license/.

So, how do you remove credit links in WordPress?

Each theme has a different code, so it actually varies depending on the WordPress theme you are using.

Though it would be impossible to cover each theme, below are how to remove them from 4 themes, which should help you identify what you need to do in your own theme.

1. Eco Theme by PageLines

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 1 - helen innes

Figure 1: Footer of Eco Theme with credit link

To remove this link here’s what you must do:

  • Go to your WordPress Admin panel. Click Appearance > Editor
  • Go to Footer.php. Find the code below and delete it.

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 1 code - helen innes

Figure 2: PHP code you need to delete (Click to View Larger Image)

2. Atahualpa

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 2 - helen innes

Figure 3: Footer of Atahualpa Theme with credit links

To remove these links here’s how:

  • Go to your WordPress Admin panel. Click Appearance > Editor
  • Go to Functions.php. Look for the code below and delete it.

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 2 code - helen innesFigure 4: The code highlighted in yellow should be deleted (Click to View Larger Image)

3. Suffusion

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 3 - helen innes

Figure 5: Footer of Suffusion Theme with credit link

To remove this link here’s what you can do:

  • Go to your WordPress Admin panel. Click Appearance > Editor
  • Go to actions.php. Look for the code below and delete it.

 

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 3 code - helen innes

Figure 6: The code highlighted in yellow should be deleted (Click to View Larger Image)

4. Mystique

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 4 - helen innesFigure 7: Footer of Mystique Theme with credit links

To remove these links here’s what you can do:

  • Go to your WordPress Admin panel. Click Appearance > Editor
  • Go to shortcodes.php. Look for the code below and delete it.

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 4 code - helen innes

Figure 8: The code highlighted in yellow should be deleted (Click To View Larger Image)

  • After you delete the code in the Mystique theme, it should look like this:

how to remove credit links in wordpress - theme 4 new code - helen innes

Figure 9: The Mystique new code (Click To View Larger Image)

If you are unsure of what you are doing, always take a copy of the original code before you delete anything. I find it best to just copy and paste the original code into a text editor before I begin. If you have trouble identifying what code to delete, look for the link and just replace the link with a blank space. You could then use that space for your own text such as copyright info or a link to your sitemap.

Should you require further help in removing credit links in WordPress, don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, visit Helen Innes’ blog at http://heleninnes.ca/ for free SEO tips.

Apr

29

2011

How to Add Comments to Pages in WordPress

By
Administrator
 – April 29, 2011Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with:

In some WordPress themes, the comment form will have been disabled in pages. That is often practical, as you don’t generally want your site visitors to comment on your About Page, Contact Page, Privacy Policy Page and FAQ page. However, in some cases you might wish to enable the comment form on one or more of your pages. If the option to enable a comment form in your pages is not available, here is how to add comments to pages in WordPress.

Basically, what we want to do is take a copy of the current page template, but add the code to show comments. This will mean we have two page templates, one that shows comments and one that does not.

1. You need to create a new page template, and give it a name. Open a text editor such as Notepad. Paste in to it the code you see below. Amend the text “Your Template Name” to what ever you want to call the template.

<?php
/*
Template Name: Your Template Name
*/
?>

Take a look at the example below. I changed “Your Template Name” to “Page with Comments”

How to add a new page template in WordPress - Code 1 - Helen InnesFigure 1: Click to View Larger Image

2. Now go to you the Admin Panel of your WordPress website. Click Appearance then Editor. Find the code for your regular pages; they should be in your Page.php file. (N.B. I’m using Eco Theme as my example.) Copy the code from this file.

How to add a new page template in WordPress - Code 2 - Helen InnesFigure 2: Click to View Larger Image

3. Paste this code in your text editor below the code you typed in step 1. It should look something like this:

<?php

/*

Template Name: Page with Comments

*/

?>

<?php

get_header();

include(THEME_LIB.’/_spotlight.php’);

include(THEME_LIB.’/_sub_head.php’);

include (THEME_LIB . ‘/template_page.php’);

?>

<?php

get_footer();

?>

4. Next, insert the code <?php comments_template(); ?> before the footer, so that it now looks similar to this.

How to add a new page template in WordPress - Code 3 - Helen InnesFigure 3: Click to View Larger Image

5. Save your file as a .php. (If you are not sure how to do this read my article, How to create a sitemap for WordPress websites. There, I discussed how you can rename a file in Notepad to use a different file extension. Though, instead of saving it as .html save it as .php).

6. Upload the file to your hosting account, into the same folder as your other php files. To do this, you will either need to use FTP, or use the ‘File Manager’ application on your hosting account.

7. Once uploaded, you will see your newly uploaded .php file in your WordPress Admin panel when you go to Appearance > Editor.

How to add a new page template in WordPress - Code 4 - Helen InnesFigure 4: Click to View Larger Image

8. Now go into the Page you want to add comments to and select your new template from the drop down list under Page Attributes.

How to add a new page template in WordPress - Code 5 - Helen Innes

Figure 5: Click to View Larger Image

I hope this helps you better understand how to add comments to pages in WordPress. If you have any questions just contact us.

Mar

15

2011

How to Find and Fix broken links in WordPress – Part 2

By
Administrator
 – March 15, 2011Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

In my previous article, Part 1: How to Find and Fix broken links in WordPress I talked about how you can find broken links within your site. To summarize, I suggested you look at Google Webmaster Tools, visit http://www.2bone.com/links/linkchecker.shtml or install the ‘Broken Link Checker’ WordPress plugin.

Now, I will teach you how you can fix your broken links.

  • A major cause of broken links is a mistyped URL. Perhaps you missed the “http” out or misspelled the domain name. This happens frequently with images. Just edit the URL within the link HTML and you are good to go. Below are two examples of how the code for a basic link should look. Compare this to the code of your broken link.

1. Text Link: I will link the anchor text – “WordPress Expert” to http://YourWordPressExpert.com/

<a href="http://YourWordPressExpert.com/"> WordPress Expert </a>

2. Image Link:

I will link the logo below to http://yourwordpressexpert.com/wordpress- theme-customization-services/

Standard Theme Pic2 - Affordable and Quality WordPress Websites

<a href="http://yourwordpressexpert.com/wordpress-theme-customization-
services/"><img src="http://yourwordpressexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/
/2010/07/Starter-Theme-Pic1.png"></a>
  • If you don’t feel confident editing the HTML and you are using a platform like WordPress, you might want to try deleting the link and adding it again using the visual editor. Just make sure that you know the real URL of the page you are linking to. To be certain you are getting it 100% correct, it is best to open up the web page you want to link to. Then do a copy to capture the URL rather just typing the address from memory. With some web browsers (e.g. Google Chrome), you can’t see the full URL in the address bar with your eyes, but when you copy it, you get the whole address.
  • When you move your pages or change the URLs, it is best to implement redirects if you are not able to update the hyperlinks pointing to these pages, individually. A redirect means that when a link is accessed; the user will be sent (redirected) to a different page. The redirect will happen so quickly, that the user will unlikely even notice it. There are a few different ways to do a redirect, but one simple way in WordPress is to use the “Pages Links to” plugin. With this plugin installed simply go to the old page and type in the URL of the new page in the ‘page links to’ section. I will be discussing other approaches to redirects in upcoming articles.
  • Not all links can be fixed, so the best option maybe to delete it. This is generally the case when you have no control over the page being linked too. For example, suppose you embed a video from YouTube and the owner removes the video. You have no choice but to delete the embedded code. If you still like a video, perhaps, you could find another video to embed, replace the old, broken code with the new code from the alternative video.

Prevention is better than cure, so you really need to check your website for broken links constantly. The plugin I mentioned to you last time, the “broken link checker” will help you keep an eye on it. Also, for times when broken links do occur make sure you optimize your 404 error page so that search engine spiders and your visitors don’t reach a road block.

Feb

15

2011

How to find and fix broken links in WordPress – Part 1

By
Administrator
 – February 15, 2011Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

Are wondering what online tools you can use, to check if your website has broken links? Or How to fix broken links in WordPress? You’ve come to the right place. I will be answering these questions in this two-part series How to Find and Fix broken links in WordPress?

Broken links leave a negative impact on your website visitors and search engine spiders. When people click on a broken link within your website, they may be inclined to leave your site. This is especially true if your 404 error page is not optimized.

These broken links can also affect your website in terms of Search Engine Optimization. I mentioned in my article, Optimizing Your 404 Error pages that this can affect your website ranking. This is because a search engine spider might encounter a broken link (i.e. reach a dead end) and so be unable to discover the rest of your site.

How to find or check broken links within your website?

There is a variety of ways to check if your website has broken links. Below are some ways you can do it for free:

If you have a Google Webmaster Account, go to Diagnostics. Click Crawl errors and you will see pages that are flagged with a 404 error along with where it was linked from.

You can also use a broken link tool. It is possible to check online using a broken link checker such as http://www.2bone.com/links/linkchecker.shtml. Just enter the URL of your web page, it will analyze the page and display it’s findings. Just a note, with this online broken link checker you cannot test javascript links and Flash objects, only regular HTML links.

If your website is running on the WordPress platform, there’s a free plugin you can download to monitor your links, funnily enough it’s called the “broken link checker”. The plugin will check your blog every 24 hours, 72 hours or at any time you choose. You also have the option of whether to check regular HTML links only or YouTube video embed codes, as well.

In my next article, I’ll tell you how you can fix broken links easily. Stay tuned.

Jan

19

2011

Common SEO mistakes that can hurt you

By
Administrator
 – January 19, 2011Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

Tagged with: ,

Here are some tips to help you avoid some common SEO blunders:

Keyword Stuffing:

One common SEO mistake that can hurt you is keyword stuffing. That is inserting your target keywords anywhere and everywhere in your site content can lead to grave consequences. Your site could be marked as having spam content and eventually banned by the search engines. On the other hand, not using your keywords can also affect your site’s rating, so you need to strike a balance.

Flash Websites and Animations:

Another mistake is using too much flash on your site. Flash can look great on your site and may attract visitors but the embedded text within the Flash are virtually invisible to the search engines. If crawlers and spiders cannot read it they will not be able toindex it.

Note also from a web design point of view iPhones, iPad’s and some other portable devices can’t display Flash, so Flash is usually best kept to a minimum from that perspective too.

Use of trailing slash“/”

You must also be careful when creating links back to your site. This is another common SEO mistake that can hurt you. The links should all be the same so that it will be counted as one page. If you created a link with “/” at the end, it is different from a link without the “/” at the end. These will be counted as two separate pages on your site, so you’d need to work twice as hard on your backlinking.

Just be cautious when you do SEO on your site and your website should do well on search engine results.

If you need help with your website, we have affordable WordPress services that can fit your budget. We have affordable SEO for WordPress for as low $65.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Jan

05

2011

Optimize Your 404 Page

By
Administrator
 – January 5, 2011Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

Tagged with: ,

Error 404 – Page not Found…This error message is very familiar to almost all internet users. When people see this error message, they feel annoyed, irritated, frustrated or disappointed. Most of them will likely leave the site and start their search over again. If you own the error page that these visitors have landed on, you may have just lost a valuable customer. So how would you prevent such losses from happening again? You need to optimize your 404 page.

Basically, a 404 page informs the visitors that the server cannot locate the file that they are looking for. This happens when Internet users type in the wrong URL or use a broken hyperlink. For example, if you are looking for “mywebsite.com/contact-us/” and instead you have typed in “mywebsite.com/contact/”, an error page will be shown to you explaining that the server cannot find the page you are looking for.

As stated earlier, when Internet users encounter a 404 page, they tend to walk away. There is very little chance of these visitors coming back to your site. Apart from fixing broken links within your own site, there is little you can do to stop the error page being displayed. So you must try to makethe error page not so off putting. You will need to customize your 404 page so that it will look very different to regular error pages, and more like a regular page of your website.

Most error pages have a white background and black text. Oftentimes, there are no explanations about how you got there or how you will get back to where you were before. As a site owner the first thing that you need to do is to design your error page to look like the rest of your website. Use the same theme, layout and color palette on your 404 page. The offer some explanation on the 404 error page regarding the situation that they are in. So that they will not hurriedly leave your site, provide some suggestions. You may wish to install a search box on the page so that they could continue their search. By providing a link to your home page or sitemap, you can also offer them alternative ways to find the content they are after.

If you need assistance on how to optimize your 404 page contact us. Also check out our other affordable wordpress services.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Dec

22

2010

Why do you need Keyword Research?

By
Administrator
 – December 22, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

Tagged with: ,

When Internet users want to find something on the internet, most of them use search engines. They type in a few words into the search bar in the hope of finding a website that meets their needs. The words they type are are called keywords or keyword phrases.

Why do you need keyword research? It is your goal to find the most appropriate keywords for your niche. This is where keyword research comes in. If you use the wrong keyword then you’re not going to attract the right visitors. And if you select a very popular keyword, it will difficult to get near the top of the results, so you’re unlikely to get traffic to your site by using it.

Keyword research is about finding keywords that have the highest relevance to your site’s content. It is important that you understand the words and phrases that people are actually using. The way you describe your product or service might be different from how ordinary people would describe it. Keyword research gives you an insight in to the exact words that both your potential consumers and your competitors are using.

By analyzing the keywords used by consumers and competitors, you will be able to decide which keywords would work best for your products. By inserting these keywords into your site you’ll make it appear more relevant to search engines, thereby increasing your website’s ranking in search results, which in turn will lead to more visitors.

You can opt to do keyword research for your own site, and there is a lot of guidance on the Internet that you can follow. Keyword research is a time consuming activity, and can be a bit disheartening, as you’ll discover that you have to rule out many of your keyword ideas because they are too competitive. It is critical to get the keywords right, as it is the foundation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you’d like assistance with your SEO then YourWordPressExpert.com can help.

It is a good idea to do keyword research before putting up a website. This is because it can give you an indication of whether your site’s topic is popular or not. While as a business owner you probably don’t want to see lots of competition, a competitive market generally means that it is delivering a need customers have. If you can break into that market then there is money to be made. Knowing what your prospects are searching for can also help inform the direction of your website.

So to answer the question of why do you need keyword research for your site? Essentially it is so that you can better target your site to what customers are searching for, but to do it such a way that you reduce the likelihood of competing with established players in the market.

Check out our affordable SEO for WordPress packages, not only can we do the research for you, but also if you have a WordPress site we can insert those keywords into your site so the search engines find them.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Dec

15

2010

Reasons Why you need a website redo

By
Administrator
 – December 15, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

Tagged with: ,

If you run a small Internet business, then you know that it is important to keep your site up to date. There are various reasons why you need a website redo. Particularly if your business is struggling, you might be wary of spending money on your website, but a site make over might just turn your luck around.

If you are seeing a decline in visitors or a reduction in sales, perhaps one or more of these is the cause:

1. Outdated/Non-professional Design.

The design of your website is very important. If new visitors do not like what they see at first glance, chances are they will leave and not come back to your website. You need to make a good first impression to your potential clients. Make sure that your site design looks professional and not dated. The website’s design should be easy on the eyes and fit well with your products and services.

2. Difficult Navigation

Your website should be easily navigated by visitors. Organize your content and navigation menu so that visitors can quickly find the information they need. Your navigation menu should be consistent on all your pages. Limit the clicks it would take a visitor to find a web page, the deeper a page is buried in the site the harder it will be for people to find it.

3. Stale Content

Updated content is critical for getting repeat visitors and for search engine optimization. If the information on your site remains the same for a long period of time, visitors and even search engines will find no reason to come back and take another look at it.

4. Hard to Read Text Styles

Ensure that your site’s visitors can easily read the content. The color, size and style of the text should be taken into account. Choose colors that can be easily distinguished from the background of the web page. Check that the links are in a different color from the rest of the text, though there is no longer a need to make all hyperlink text blue.

5. Too Many Advertisements

Your website should not be overwhelmed by advertisements and affiliate links. While you obviously want people to click on these links as they earn you commission, visitors can be put off by a lot of adverts. So make sure that your content is the most prominent element on any page, because that’s why the visitor is on your site. Confine affiliate images to designated areas of the page – such as one sidebar – so not to distract away from the content.

6. Lack of Interactivity

Many of today’s websites try to get some interaction with their target audience. A daily or weekly blog is a good place to start. Additionally, you can provide your visitors with the opportunity to give you feedback by using response forms. You may also wish to include links to your social networking pages, so that you can better interact with your clients.

These are just a few of the reasons why you need a website redo. Before you go ahead and redesign your site, think it over and make sure that you get the most out of your website redo by addressing the short comings in your current site.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Dec

08

2010

Why do you need SEO?

By
Administrator
 – December 8, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

Tagged with: ,

Why do you need SEO? SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimization) improves the chances of a website appearing at or near the top of Search Engine results. A site that appears on the first results page, will receive more traffic than sites listed on subsequent pages.

Unless you have a personal blog which would only be of interest to your friends and family, you  probably want people to be able to find your site without having to know your website address. This is where SEO comes in. When a user types something into a Search Engine they will get back thousands of results (the exact number will depending upon the search term they typed in). Most people will click on the first result, if that is not what they want they’ll then work their way down the first page. There are some that will look at the second and third pages of the results. But beyond that, only a very small percentage of people would look at any additional pages.

So, how do you get your website to be at the top? First you have to make some changes to your site such as changing the content of your site to include those search terms (known as keywords) that your prospective visitors are searching for. You’ll also want to add these keywords to fields that the search engines read (Meta tags) to determine what a page is about. Then once your on page optimizations are complete you’ll want to create links to your site from other sites, for example, by writing articles or submitting comments to forums.

SEO can help increase traffic to your website. Having more visitors gives you more chances of promoting your products or services to prospective customers. This in turn should result in an increase in your sales or affiliate commisions.

Even once your page hits the top spot, you can not just sit back and wait for the traffic to flood in. It will for a while, but rememeber your competitors are probably optimizing their sites for search engines and you don’t want to get left behind. Their SEO efforts can push your site down the results pages until your site is no longer visible to the average Search Engine user.

So to answer the question of why do you need SEO for your website? It’s simple – to get to the top of the search result and stay there. It requires a lot of effort but the reward is lots of free traffic. From that everything else follows – an increase in sales, awareness of your product, and faster return of investment.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Dec

01

2010

Importance Of Meta Tags In SEO

By
Administrator
 – December 1, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

Tagged with: ,

Knowing and understanding the importance of Meta tags in SEO is valuable information that you can use to bring attention to your blog or website. It is one of the most important aspects in search engine optimization.

What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML tags which provide data to search engines or web crawlers about the information present on a webpage. Meta tags help search engines in ranking the importance and relevance of a webpage.

What are the different Meta Tags?

Meta keywords are a list of words describing the content of a webpage. It highlights targeted words, these words or phrases are relevant to the content of the website.

Example: For a website about infant toys, you can write it this way:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”infant toys, 0-24 months, organic”>

The Meta description is the description of the website and it should be written in a short and concise manner. On the search engine results page, this will appear just below the title tag (title of the webpage) and the user can read it without opening up your website. This is essential because it helps the reader decide if this is what he or she is looking for.

Example: Going back to infant toys as an example.

<meta name=”description” content=”Carefully choosing infant toys is important and should help in the development of their motor skills.”>

Meta owner. Lists the company or person who owns the web page.

Example:

<meta name=”copyright” content=”the Metatags Company” />

Meta author. Lists the person who created the webpage.

Example:

<meta name=”author” content=”John Smith, johnsmith@johnsmith.com”>

Meta distribution. Defines if the webpage is distributed locally or globally on the Internet.

Example:

<meta name=”distribution” content=”global”>

Note – Although we’ve used the code above to explain each of the meta tags, with WordPress you can populate them more conveniently by using SEO Plugins.

Carefully study these Meta tags. The importance of meta tags in SEO is bigger than you may think it is.  If use properly they can greatly help put your website at the top of Google.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Nov

24

2010

What makes WordPress Websites Affordable

By
Administrator
 – November 24, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

WordPress is gaining so much popularity worldwide largely because of it’s affordability and it’s ease of use. You might be wondering, what makes WordPress websites affordable?  How come there are a lot of small businesses using WordPress as a website?

  • The WordPress Platform is free.  You can download it and install it on your webhosting account.  Upgrade versions are also free.
  • The plugin extensions are free.  Contact forms, anti-spamming, twitter and facebook buttons etc. are free.
  • There are over a thousand free themes you can customize and use for your website.  Turning your website into a corporate website is easy.

There are themes and plugins you can buy but they are optional. If you’re willing to do the installation and customizations yourself, all you need pay for are your domain name and a web hosting package.

As well as being affordable WordPress websites are also easier to manage than non-CMS websites.

  • Uploading a picture, editing a text, creating a page and post is easy.  You do not need to know HTML, CSS nor PHP (though it does help).
  • The WordPress Admin Panel is very user friendly.
  • You do not usually need to hire a web developer to check and fix bugs for you.
  • There are a lot of WordPress articles and video tutorials that can help you with the basics.

WordPress is not only reliable, it’s innovative and with dynamic features. As an open source platform, it continuously evolves to greater benefit its users. Because the software is essentially free and it’s quicker to customize that other website development platforms, it means if you do decide to hire someone to create the site for you, costs will be significantly cheaper. YourWordPressExpert can create affordable quality WordPress websites for as low as $195.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Nov

17

2010

7 Reasons Why You Need a Website

By
Administrator
 – November 17, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

Tagged with:

The World Wide Web creates opportunities for individuals, organizations and businesses to share, sell, and buy online. Information dissemination and promotion of ideas and products is a lot easier than it used to be.

Here are some other reasons why you need a website for your business or for personal use:

1. Websites are a great source of information. You can create online tutorials, publish research documents and post do-it-yourself instructions on your website. Online workshops and webinars are popular because they can reach a large number of viewers.

2. For Marketing and Promotion. You can promote products and services locally or globally through web marketing. Like eBay and Amazon, you can sell products 24/7 to clients worldwide.

3. Building an online community or movement to raise awareness of issues. With your website, you can connect with people who share your views and outlook.

4. Having a website allows you to showcase your talents, skills or hobbies. Photo blogging is a new, fun and popular way of displaying photographs online.

5. Cut down on emails and post. Instead of sending documents, you can create online subscriptions for your customers or downloadable files so they can retrieve the information at their convenience without your involvement.

6. For your business customer service or support. Its not just large companies like AT&T that provide online support, it is now very affordable for small companies to offer this too. At the basic level, you too can set up online support through a forum or frequently ask questions (FAQ) page. This will allow you to answer customer questions once rather than repeatedly as you would via telephone or in-person. Feedback is also important for your business as this will help improve your services. On your website, you can allow customers to post product reviews. Positive reviews can encourage others to order that product.

7. You can earn money with your website. Even simple blogging can augment your income through Google AdSense and affiliate programs.

These are just some reasons why you need a website, for your particular business area or personal interest there may well be more.  If you’d like us to build your website for you, visit our services web page or contact us.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Nov

10

2010

Why WordPress Websites are Better?

By
Administrator
 – November 10, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

Why WordPress websites are better? WordPress is easy to install and manage. Also, it’s two applications in one platform because it functions both as Content Management System (CMS) and weblog software. Network Solutions uses WordPress for CMS. Let me cite the reasons why most bloggers prefer WordPress over non-CMS platform like blogger.com:

  • WordPress is simple with user-friendly Admin Panel. Non-technical users find it easy to update and manage their webpages. Plugins and themes are simpler to modify because knowledge in PHP or CSS is not a requirement; though it would be an advantage if you tech-savvy. It has comprehensive dashboard where you can view posts and comments and site performance without opening new pages.
  • WordPress is reliable. The platform continuously updates its version to fix vulnerability issues and add features like multi-site where it is now possible for you to have multiple blogs. This is good because you can manage these blogs under one WordPress account. It has an interactive forum and walkthrough to help you with installation, theme customization and plugin integration. Also, as an open-source platform, developers continuously release updates and plugins which are free to use and customize.
  • WordPress has richer and dynamic features like media uploader (enables you to upload multiple files at once), comment management, plugins (extends application and can even use for security protection like WordPress Security Scan or for social networking like Wickett Twitter Widget or for SEO like SEO Ultimate and Simple SEO) text editor, RSS and 1,283 themes to choose from.
  • WordPress is easy to manage. If your website is custom-built, you can easily find WordPress experts to troubleshoot problems or manage the contents and applications for you. There are freelancers and full-time consultants who can do the job for you at a reasonable fee.
  • WordPress is low-cost. If you wanted to own a website and you are on a budget, you can start with WordPress. After buying a domain a hosting account, you can team up with experts to build your website or perform theme and plugin customization and website redo.

Why WordPress websites are better compared to web-based platform? With WordPress, you have full control on your website. And not only that, it is recommended for low-cost web ownership for small business, non-profit organizations and individuals. Even brands like Ford, eBay and Mozilla are powered by WordPress.

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Nov

03

2010

History of WordPress

By
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 – November 3, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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The Internet is the most popular medium for expressing our ideas and publicizing them for the world to see and also allows us to exchange opinions. The history of WordPress is as colorful as it’s popularity today.

Released on May 27, 2003 by Matt Mullenweg, an entrepreneur and founder of the web development corporation called Automattic, WordPress functions both as Content Management System (CMS) and weblog software. It is notable for online publishing of personal and commercial websites with numerous customizable themes and plugins available free of charge. As the successor of b2/cafelog, a blogging tool, it is built on PHP and MySQL.  While PHP is a scripting language, MySQL is used to store information. It was founded on the principle of open source computing, which means the source code of a program is free for public use and modification.

As a web application, a CMS is used in managing websites and its content. A weblog (now simply referred to as a blog) is an interactive type of website where visitors can post comments relating to the authors entry. To simplify the creation and maintenance of blogs, weblog software was developed. To enhance the capabilities and functionalities of an application, plugins were then integrated in to weblogs which allowed modification and customization. Plugins include stats dashboards, social networking, photo galleries, gravatars or avatars, follow links and much more. Users have the option to use available plugins or create their own.

WordPress tops the CMS and weblogging platform due to its user-friendly set-up and maintenance process. Installation is an easy task. The website itself provides a walk through of the installation process and its forum is a repository and an interactive source of information. Themes, plugins and widgets are available for richer web content. Gravatar, Globally Recognized Avatar, the icon and plug-in that represents the user in the blogosphere gives a user a sleek and fun appearance.

The growing demand of online publishing has created a necessity for a reliable, up-to-date and innovative publishing platform like WordPress, which simplifies once complex content management.

Along with the rising popularity of blogging, a great leap in the history of WordPress resides in its aim to simplify, innovate and expand its functionality while maintaining excellence. On June 17, 2010, version 3.0 with a codename of Thelonious was released. At the time of writing this is the latest major update of WordPress. With this release, new features like the default theme “Twenty Ten” and multi-blogging were added.

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Oct

27

2010

WordPress Admin Panel

By
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 – October 27, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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This article continues our discussion from last week, where we began to provide you with a Glossary of WordPress Terms.

This week we will review the WordPress Admin Panel, which is the list of menu items that appear down the left hand side in the admin area of your site. In simple terms, your Admin Panel is where you manage your website on a day-to-day basis, only you and those you trust will have access to this.

To get to the Admin Panel you need to login to the administration area of your website.  Just append “/wp-login.php/ to the end of your homepage URL.  For example if http://mywebsite.com was your home page URL, you would type http://mywebsite.com/wp-login.php in the address bar to access it. You will need a user name and password to login.

The first entry on the Admin Panel is for the Dashboard. This gives you an overview of the recent activity on your website as well as what is happening in the WordPress Community as a whole.  It also provides you with quick access to edit or add content to your website.

Below the Dashboard on the Admin Panel, there are various Sub-Panels which give your further options to manage your website.

Posts – A post is a piece of content displayed in chronological order that can be categorized and displayed with other posts. If you use your website for blogging then you will need the Posts for your blog entries. To add this article to our website so that you can view it, we entered it in to the Posts section.

Media – If you want to insert pictures, videos or files into your website you can directly upload them here.

Links – If you want to add an external link to your website, perhaps your favorite website or resource, then you can add it here.

Pages – Unlike Posts, Pages are static. They are not stored in chronological order or categorized, they are usually accessed via the Navigation (or Menu) bar, though this is not essential. Examples of pages are the About Page, Contact Us, Our Services etc.

Comments – When someone comments on your Posts their comment will appear here. You have the option to approve or delete these comments.

Appearance – If you want to customize your website’s appearance you need to go here. You can upload a new theme, add widgets, customize the menu and more advance users can edit the CSS code and PHP files.

Plugins – If you want to add, upload, modify or delete a plugin this is where it can be done. See our article Understanding Plugins: How they Function in WordPress for further information on what exactly a Plugin is.

Users – Here you can add other people as administrators, editors, authors, contributors or subscribers so they have permission to carry out certain activities your the site. If you are an Administrator, you can also revoke the access of others from here too.

Tools - You will find here other tools that run on your website.  Sometimes when you install a plugin the options of the plugin appear in this section.

Settings – You can do a lot of things here, such as set your website’s privacy, limit the number of posts, change your website name and tagline, and choose what page to display as the front page of your site and a lot more.

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Oct

20

2010

Glossary of WordPress Terms

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 – October 20, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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Glossary of WordPress Terms: Part 1 – Basic Parts of a WordPress Website

To help you understand WordPress and its functions we have provided a glossary of WordPress Terms.

We will be discussing the basic parts of a WordPress Website:

Moms Online Help

a. Header – this usually contains your logo, headline and tagline. Though it is up to you what you put inside your header.

  • Tagline -   this is your website slogan which is usually found right below your Headline.  In http://www.nichedesignsinc.com/ the tagline is “Creating Storage Solutions For Small Spaces”

Niche Designs Inc

b. Navigation Bar – this is also called menu bar. The navigation bar contains links to your pages or categories.  This can either be placed below the header or above the header depending on the WordPress Theme you used. In http://www.nichedesignsinc.com/ you can see that the navigation bar is below the header while in http://innta.com/ the navigation bar is above the header.

Innta Business Solutions

c. Body – this is your main content.  This can be a video, text, picture, table or combination of these elements. In http://yourwordpressexpert.com/wordpress-theme-customization-services/ you will notice that we use a combination of text, table and pictures. You can easily add or edit the body of your website from your WordPress Dashboard.

d. Widget Area – this contains your widgets. Such areas can be found on the left or right sidebar, below your header or above your footer, depending on the WordPress Theme you installed.  Read our article What is a Widget for a WordPress Website? to better understand widgets.

e. Footer – this is found below your main body.  It usually contains your copyright information, address and other links.

Next week we will continue our discussion on the Glossary of WordPress Terms.  We will be talking about the basic parts of the dashboard.

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Oct

13

2010

RSS links used for SEO

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 – October 13, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

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RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary. Subscribing to the RSS feed of your favorite website will save you a lot of time because instead of visiting your favorite website every now and then for recent updates, your RSS Reader or News Reader will do the work for you.

RSS feeds are not only for content distribution, RSS links are also used for SEO by internet marketers. Creating RSS feeds for the websites that contains your back links and submitting them to RSS aggregators will help Google and other search engines find your links faster.

The easiest way to do RSS feeds is through Feedage.  Sign-up with Feedage and visit HTML2RSS.  Just type in the URL of the website containing your back links and it will create a feed for you.  Copy the URL of the feed and submit it to RSS Aggregators.   Below are list of RSS Aggregators.

  1. Codango
  2. BlogBunch
  3. Blogdigger
  4. Boing Boing
  5. FeedAge
  6. Feed Fury
  7. FeedNuts
  8. FeedPlex
  9. Ice Rocket
  10. RSS Network

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Oct

06

2010

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

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 – October 6, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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What is WordPress.com? What is WordPress.org?

A lot of people are confused by these two. Although they both use the WordPress platform there’s a huge difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. For starters, with WordPress.org you need to install the WordPress software (which you download from WordPress.org) on to your own server. Generally you won’t own the server yourself, instead you would purchase third party web hosting from companies like BlueHost or HostGator. In contrast to this, with WordPress.com your blog or website is hosted free by Automattic. Given you get ‘free’ hosting, on the face of it WordPress.com does sound more appealing, but there are several drawbacks you need to be aware of.

Other differences:

Domain Name – With WordPress.com you have an option to use the free domain name allocated by WordPress.com or you can use your own domain name. If you choose the free domain name your website address will look something like ““myblog.wordpress.com”. If you want a domain name without wordpress.com in it like “myblog.com” then you have to register your own domain name with a domain name registrar like GoDaddy.com. With WordPress.org you are not given the option of a free domain, so you must register your own domain at a domain registrar such as GoDaddy.com.

WordPress Themes – WordPress.com gives you a limited selection of themes (about 100). You can only choose from the list of themes they have. With WordPress.org however, you can choose from over one thousand free themes downloadable from WordPress.org, install a paid premium theme or even have a theme custom built for you.

Plugins – Plugins can only be used with WordPress.org software, they can not be installed at WordPress.com

Customizations – With WordPress.com sites you will not be able to amend the PHP code behind your blog. By default CSS is also restricted, but if you want to edit the CSS code of your blog you can purchase a paid upgrade. Some java script embed codes are also restricted. If you opt to use the software from WordPress.org, you can edit and modify CSS and PHP code. You can also embed java script for videos, shopping cart, auto-responder forms and other functions. Being able to edit the PHP, CSS and java script is important, as they give you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to making your website look different to others using the same theme.

If you just want somewhere free to put your blog and don’t mind too much about the layout, plugins and other software functions then go for WordPress.com. WordPress.com is great for the individual blogger who just wants to share their thoughts and experiences, and because of the limited options it makes it quick to set up too.

If you’re a small business who wants to integrate WordPress with different software functions like a shopping cart, PayPal, auto-responder etc. then choose WordPress.org. Even if you aren’t running a business, but want a professional looking blog or website then because of the greater control it gives, WordPress.org is the best option for you too. If you do not have the technical knowledge or the time to customize your WordPress site we can do that for you.

For affordable expert WordPress services, visit YourWordPressExpert.com.

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Sep

29

2010

Link Building Tips

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 – September 29, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

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Off Page SEO or back linking is the back bone of search engine optimization. A back link is any link from one web page to another. Search engines like Google see back link’s sort of like a vote of recommendation, because it assumes the first website is linking to the second website because it’s content is good.

Here are some link building tips for you.

1. The greater the number of back links you have the better your chance of ranking, however there should be a variety of links. Do not limit yourself to article submission and press releases. You can create back links from different social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Building back links from other blogs and forums can also be considered.

2. Link only from authority sites or web pages with page ranking 3 and above. The higher the page rank of the web page the links are coming from the better since Google trust these websites. You can check a web page ranking through SEO Quake.

3. Link building must be done naturally, which involves a lot of work. There are many companies and individuals offering instant links. Do not buy these links as you can get penalized. A new website getting a thousand links on the first day will raise a red flag with Google. No one will believe that you built your links naturally because link building takes a lot of time and effort.

4. Avoid link exchanges. If you happened to link your website to an adult site or a known spammed content website, your page ranking will suffer.

There are a lot of other link building tips you can find online. But the best tip is to be patient in link building. Since you are aiming for a top spot in an organic search result this must be done naturally. This is not an overnight task it must be done every day because you’re competing with websites that have been doing it for years.

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Sep

22

2010

On-Page SEO Checklist

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 – September 22, 2010Posted in: Articles

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After choosing your keyword you can now begin Search Engine Optimization to rank in organic search results. On-page SEO must be done properly first before you can proceed to off-page SEO.

Here is your on-page SEO checklist.

1. Title Tag, Meta Description, Meta Keywords

Insert your keyword in your title tag, meta description and meta keywords tag. You can use the code below and insert it in your header.

<title>”put your keyword choice here” </title>

<meta content=”put your keyword choice here” />

<meta content=”put your keyword choice here” />

You can install the Ultimate SEO WordPress plugin so you can easily do this. Do not over stuff these tags with keywords. You will find the Ultimate SEO plugin section in every page or post editor. Just enter your keyword and it will automatically insert the code in your header.

2. Create an XML sitemap.

A sitemap is a list all your web pages. If you are using the WordPress platform you can easily create an XML sitemap. Sitemaps allows faster indexing of your website. Whenever you change something to your website, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are automatically pinged (meaning informed).

3. Check your Robots.txt file.

Make sure you are allowing search engine bots to crawl and indexed your website. You can easily create a robot.txt file by installing a WordPress plugin.

4.Check keyword Density

Use your keyword in your content twice and bold the word. Keep in mind that keyword density should only be 3-5%. If you repeatedly use your keyword in your content it will look like spammed content. To check keyword density, download SEO quake and run an analysis of your website.

Google and other search engines rank pages individually, they do not rant the website as a whole though what you do on one page can affect the other pages in your site. On-page SEO must be done properly on every web page. Use this On-page SEO checklist and you won’t go far wrong.

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Sep

15

2010

Keywords Role in SEO

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 – September 15, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

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Keywords play an important role in SEO. Most of the time users do not directly type in the URL of the web pages they want to visit. Often they do not even know the specific website of the product or information they are looking for. Instead they type in keywords (either one or more words) in to a search engine. These keywords (or keyword phrases) are matched by searched engines such as Google, to the most relevant websites.

Choosing the right keyword or keyword phrase for your web pages is crucial in SEO. You must always choose a specific keyword. If you are selling laptops, choosing the keyword “laptop” is too generic. Think of the people you want to visit your site, visitors who would likely be your customers. If you are selling second hand laptops, you would be better off choosing the keyword “second hand laptop” or for a more specific term you can include the brand, “Dell second hand laptop” or “HP second hand laptop”.

You must also check how competitive the keyword is. Try searching for the keyword you are targeting in Google by enclosing it inside quotes to know how many web pages are competing for that keyword. Example: “second hand laptop” If the search results showed more than 50,000 pages look for another keyword as this keyword is quite competitive.

The Google keyword tool can also help you choose the right keyword for your web page. You can see how many global searches there are, local searches happen, the competition there is and many more parameters. To learn more about how to get started with the Google keyword tool visit the Innta.com

Keywords role on SEO is crucial because you will not be able to start SEO if you have not selected a keyword or keyword phrase. Once you’ve selected the right keyword for your web page you can now proceed with your on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

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Sep

08

2010

Organic Search vs Paid Search

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 – September 8, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization

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Organic search or paid search, which one is better?

When a user types in a keyword or phrase in the Google search engine, the results shown on the left side are called organic search results while the results on the right hand side are non-organic search results. Organic search results are free listings while non-organic search results are paid results.

It takes time and effort to be included in the first page of the search results and to be placed at the top spot in an organic search. Since this is a free listing everybody can compete, those with higher page ranking are prioritized over those with zero ranking. The only way to be on the first page of the search results is to rank higher. Getting a page rank will require search engine optimization. Doing on-page SEO on your web pages and off-page SEO is necessary.

Non-organic search results or paid search results are pay-per-click (know as PPC) advertisements, which means you pay every time someone clicks on your Ad. In Google anyone can advertise by creating a Google Adwords Account. But being on the first page of the search results can also be costly. We will be discussing Google Adwords in detail in coming weeks, but just to give you an idea, a very competitive keyword can range from $5 to $8 per click or even higher. Unlike organic search results, you can be at the top spot easily by bidding higher.

Internet marketers encouraged businesses to invest time and effort to be at the top of the organic search results. Most consumers trust organic results over paid results. Google has also said that they have greater click through rates in organic results than those that are paid for. And from a cost point of view nothing beats organic search results since they’re FREE.

Whether organic search results or paid search results you should still pay attention to your website content, you might drive people to your website but conversion is a different story.

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Sep

01

2010

WordPress Duplicate Content

By
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 – September 1, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

Using the WordPress platform for your site gives you quite an edge in your website’s SEO but there is one thing common in all WordPress websites that might hurt your page ranking, that is WordPress duplicate content.

Duplicate content means you have two or more web pages having the same or almost the same content. WordPress themes tend to produce a lot of duplicate content. When you create a post it automatically produces two or more web pages; your original post as well as pages for your category classification, for your tag classification and date archive classification.

Example of this is the article: Use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to increase SEO from Innta.com. The original url of this web page is http://innta.com/use-google-adwords-keyword-tool-to-increase-seo/. However the WordPress theme Suffusion generated duplicates based on different taxonomy.

Search engines like Google do not want duplicate content. You can get penalized for this and hurt your page ranking.

Installing the Ultimate SEO plugin can fixed this issue. Go to your Admin Panel:

  1. Click Plugins
  2. Click Add New
  3. Type in Ultimate SEO into the Search Box
  4. Click Install
  5. Click Activate.
  6. Once installed go back to your Admin Panel, click SEO
  7. Click No Index Manager (‘No Index’ means search engines are to ignore it)
  8. Checked the pages/posts you do not want to be indexed such as administration back-end pages, author archives, blog search pages, category archives, comment feeds, comments subpages, date-based archives, tag archives, and user login/registration pages.

You can also use another plugin called the Robots Meta plugin which also has this no indexing function. There are lots of plugins available at wordpress.org, just choose the one(s) you think are best for you, what is important is to eliminate WordPress duplicate content in your website.

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Aug

26

2010

WordPress SEO Fast and Easy

By
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 – August 26, 2010Posted in: Articles, Search Engine Optimization, WordPress

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This article will give you a short background on WordPress’ SEO capabilities.

SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, which is about improving the visibility of your website in search engines. Making your website the first result on the first page of the search engines is the ultimate goal. When people search for something in, for example Google, and your website is displayed on the first page, the probability of them visiting your site is higher. That is why internet marketers and SEO managers put a lot of effort into increasing a web pages rank. Every web page is ranked by search engines according to the parameters they set. Optimizing your web content, inserting keywords in meta tags and creating sitemaps are some of the ways to increase page rank.

There are two kinds of SEO; on-page and off-page. On-page SEO is about optimizing your website content, inserting keywords into meta tags, in the body and the title of your pages. You can also create anchor text, use alternate text in your images and much more. Off-page SEO is concerned with backlinking, which means getting other websites to link to your web pages. We will explain more about backlinking in the coming weeks, for now we shall just concentrate on on-page SEO techniques.

If your website is running on WordPress platform your work is much easier. WordPress has a well optimized system in place. This makes on-page SEO easier and faster. Here are some WordPress SEO tips.

1. You can easily bold and place links within the body of the page without knowing any HTML. To create anchor text, just highlight the text you want to be an anchor text, in the post/page editor click “link” and a pop out window will appear and you just type in the URL of the website you want to linked to.

2. Image optimization is easy. Every time you upload or insert a picture, you can insert description, alternate text and title in the image options.

3. With the use of the Ultimate SEO plugin you can easily insert keywords, description and title in your meta tags.

The more traffic you have to your website the greater the chance of generating income. There are lots of ways to get traffic to your site but nothing beats free traffic. So start doing your WordPress SEO now.

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Aug

18

2010

Understanding Plugins: How they Function in WordPress

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 – August 18, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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If you are having a hard time understanding Plugins, this article will help you.

The default WordPress installation comes with standard functionality such as allowing you to create a page or post, insert a picture or video etc. Themes can also add features, which make your site easier to manage or help with the ‘look and feel’. However, if you want to extend your sites functionality even further you can do so through the use of Plugins.
There are thousands of Plugins available, each addressing different WordPress user requirements. Essentially Plugins let you add the ‘Bells and Whistles’ to your site without the need for you to do extensive coding. There are a great many free Plugins available from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ which can help you protect your site from spam comments, show your recent posts, create an xml sitemap for your site, assist you with basic SEO and much more.

Before installing any plugin be sure to read the description, if a warning note appears saying that the plugin is not tested on your current WordPress version, you may want to find another. It is often the case that there are several Plugins that address the same need, with only slight differences. Since Plugins are generally free you will want to be sure they don’t contain malicious code so choose Plugins that received higher ratings without warning flags.

To install Plugins from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ follow these simple steps:
• Log in to your WordPress site
• Click Plugins (on the left hand side bar)
• Click Add New
• Search for the Plugin you wanted to install
• Then click Install

If you find a Plugins that is not available at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ then you will need to download the zip file and install it manually. The only reason a Plugin would not be on WordPress.org is if the creator is charging for it, these are known as a Premium Plugins. Be very cautious of free Plugins not available via WordPress.org

Note that Plugins are only available to websites where you use your own domain name and have a hosting account (or host yourself). If your website is hosted free by WordPress at WordPress.com you will not be able to use Plugins.

To find out which Plugins we recommend, subscribe above to our 6 ‘Must Have’ Free WordPress Plugins. This is a free subscription and you can unsubscribe at anytime.

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Aug

11

2010

What is a Widget for a WordPress Website?

By
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 – August 11, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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If you’re wondering what a widget for a WordPress website is, here’s your answer. It’s a way of organizing your content for your visitors. For example in the YourWordPressExpert.com site, there is a sidebar on the right hand side, and each of the boxes within the sidebar is one widget.

Widgets can’t just go anywhere, they can only go in a ‘widget area’ and depending upon the WordPress theme you choose you will have different widget areas available to you. The most common widget areas are in the sidebars and above the footer, though others are available.

There are several standard widgets provided in every WordPress installation. Though most themes are widget ready (i.e. they have somewhere you can put your widgets), there are still some that do not support widgets, so check this before deciding on a theme.

Here is a list of some of the standard widgets, though more are available by installing ‘Plugins’ (We’ll explain Plugins properly next week!)

Text Widgets – This is a very versatile widget as you can use this to enter your own HTML codes, Javascript, links, images, videos or just plain text.

Categories Widget – If you want to show your blog posts by category use this widget. It displays all your post headings either via a drop down list or in a parent-child hierarchy.

Recent Posts Widget – Use this widget to allow visitors to view your most recent post, you can indicate how many posts you want to be displayed.

Pages Widget – This widget acts like a table of contents in that it displays a list of all your pages. Ideal for those who prefer not to have menu bar at the top, and instead list the contents of their site in a sidebar.

Search Widget – This widget displays a search box.  If a visitor wants to search for something on your site, they just type in their search query and it automatically searches your site for them.

Widgets can easily be added, removed or rearranged:

  • Log in to WordPress.
  • On the Admin Panel (on the left) click Appearance
  • Then click Widgets to be directed to the Widgets page.
  • In the main area of the Widgets page you will see the widgets available to use, while on your right are the widget areas where you can put them. Just drag each widget to the desired widget area and edit the information needed.

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Aug

04

2010

Blogging to Earn

By
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 – August 4, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

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With the present economic climate individuals are thinking more creatively about how to earn money, particularly when they can no longer rely on a steady paycheck. Surprisingly people are turning to blogging to earn extra money. Earnings can range from $5 to $2,500 or even more. Writing about what you know and getting paid for it…sound too good to be true? Well here’s what you need know.

  1. Think carefully about your topic – you just can’t write about anything. You need a subject that people would not only be interested in reading about, but also one for which they are willing to part with their cash. Topics about fitness and health are generally sellable, as are relationships and wealth. To find out if your ideas are likely to be popular check out the Google AdWords Keyword tool, to see the numbers of people searching for your topic. This is also a good way to decide on a name for your blog.
  2. Next you’ll need to find somewhere online to store your blog. To get started with zero cost, you can create an account with Blogger or WordPress.com. If you would like greater control of your blog you may prefer to purchase a domain and hosting package. We recommend GoDaddy.com for domain name registration and HostGator.com for hosting. For those looking to get started blogging without the hassle of creating the blog site yourself, may want to consider YourWordPressExpert’s custom and theme website packages.
  3. Blogs generally earn money promoting third part products, therefore you need to decide what you are going to promote. One option is to sign up for Google Adsense which will display ads on your website that relate to your topic. Each time a visitor to your website clicks the advertisements you get paid.
  4. You can also look for affiliate programs. Unlike Adsense where Google decides which ads to display, with affiliate programs you choose what you promote. Generally being an affiliate will pay better than the Adsence commissions, but with affiliate programs you only tend to get paid when the visitor actually buys from the company you are promoting.
  5. Once your blog gets popular you could even create your own information products such as an eBook or Video tutorial, that way you get 100% of the profits, not just a commission.
  6. The key to earning big money is traffic. The more traffic you get, the greater the chances are someone will buy what you are promoting. In order for people to find your blog, you will need to spend time building links to your site. Not only will people follow these links to reach your blog, but it will increase your search engine ranking so people will find you via search engines too.
  7. Keep writing articles with good content in order to gain loyal followers. While your goal is to make money from the ads, you need to keep your promotions subtle or you will lose the trust of your site visitors. Make sure you allow comments and interact with your readers, answer their queries or simply thank them for their contribution. Always update, as people like to see something new.

You control everything – the topic, the products you promote, and how much you write and engage with your audience. The major limiting factor on your earning potential are the decisions you make and the effort you put in. Remember unless you’re selling your own information products it’s the advertisements that pay you, so all of your efforts are to drive your audience to click the ads.

So, what are you waiting for? Blog to earn money now!

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Jul

28

2010

Sample Theme Layouts

By
Administrator
 – July 28, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

Tagged with: , ,

Whether you want a custom built website or a theme customized you need to decide on a layout. The common layouts you will find for WordPress are one column, two-column, three-column and magazine. Below there are sample theme layouts to help explain each of these.

One Column Web Page

The one column web page is very simple and has no sidebars. This type of layout is commonly used by authors or writers who want to simply show the content, no ads, and no extras. The layout is good for review sites or personal blogs, though it can also be used for corporate blogs.

Panic the maker of Coda, Desktastic, Transmit, Unison, and Candybar (popular Mac software programs) use WordPress for their blog utilizing a single column page layout as seen below.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

Two Column Web Page

This layout uses one sidebar that is either placed on the right side or on the left side.  The sidebar contains different widgets used for easy navigation menus, search bar, advertisements or social bookmarking icons. Blog.Logitech (a.k.a. BLogitech) a blog site used by Logitech employees to comment on products, it uses a two column page layout, visit their website.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

Three Column Web Page

This layout consists of two sidebars, usually one on the left side and one on the right side. This is a typical layout used for corporate websites.

The Samsung Newsroom, a website which gives updates on the company and its new releases uses a three column page layout.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

GE Reports also uses a three column layout, but this time both sidebars are on the right side.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

Magazine Lay-out

Magazine layouts are used by a lot of WordPress websites. If you want to show featured stories with photos this is the best layout for you as it contains featured sliders and featured posts. Vanderbilt Magazine uses a magazine layout.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

You can also use this layout if you want promote your products, using the featured section to showcase your products. The excerpts that can be placed in the featured slider and featured post can serve as your teaser ads. Eye fi a start-up company uses a magazine layout for their site.

Theme Layout Samples - Click to see this WordPress layout

A Final Note

Many companies are turning to WordPress, as it is an inexpensive means of developing websites. Even big companies like Nokia, Pepsi, Nikon and Fisher Price are using WordPress, so don’t think it is a tool for amateurs.

WordPress is no longer considered just a blogging tool as the variety of layouts mean it can look and function like you’d expect a website to. All of the example sites featured in this article are built using WordPress, so you can see the variety it offers. Visit http://wordpress.org/showcase/ to find out which other companies are using WordPress, and to see more examples of these layouts.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

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Jul

21

2010

Difference Between Domain Name and Web Hosting

By
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 – July 21, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

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This article intention is to explain in simple terms the difference between a domain name and web hosting. Both are essential in launching a website.

In the physical world when you want to go to a specific place you need to know the physical address, such as the house number, street and city. It is just the same with the internet, if you want to go to a specific website you need to know the address of the site – this is the domain name.

A domain name also plays an important role in marketing; the easier for people to recall it the better for your business. To better guide you in choosing the right domain, you may want to read an earlier article which offers advice on domain name selection.

Buying a domain name only provides you with the right to use that name, it does not give you any where to put your website. For this you need to purchase a web hosting account. A web hosting account gives you access to a computer where you store the pages, content, pictures and other files that relate to your site. Think of web hosting like renting storage space on the internet, you pay a monthly or annual fee and a hosting company gives you space on their computers to keep your website. While it is possible for you to store your website files on your own computer, this takes a great deal of technical knowledge and time commitment.

If you would like more information about what to look for in a web hosting provider for your WordPress site, please read our recent article on the subject

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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Jul

14

2010

Create a Website On a Budget With WordPress

By
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 – July 14, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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Traditionally building a website has been a costly and time consuming activity for small business owners. You’d not only need to hire a website developer to create the site for you, but continue to pay them for updates to your site. Every time you want to change, edit or to add something to the website (including text and images), you would be charged a fee for their time. This website development method can be costly especially for those who are selling goods online as they need to update their product catalogues and promotions often. But now you can create a website on a budget with WordPress.

WordPress offers a significantly less expensive approach to web development. It was originally created as a blogging tool, which meant that it was intended to be updated by the user frequently. It has since evolved, and it now being used to create fully functional websites that do not look at all like blogs.

Before you can begin to create your own WordPress site you will need purchase two vital things:

  • A Domain Name (aka website address or URL) – Which can be bought from sites such as GoDaddy.com (domain name registrar)
  • A Hosting Account – This is where your website files will be stored, we recommend HostGator.com (hosting provider)

Once purchased you will need to do the following before you can begin to configure your WordPress site:

  1. If you did not purchase your domain name from the same company as your web hosting package (and we recommend you keep them separate) then you will need to change the DNS records of your domain so it points to your hosting account. (Your hosting provider will tell you what to write, and your domain registrar will tell you where to write it)
  2. Once your domain is working on your hosting account, you can install WordPress onto your domain. In most cases you can do this directly through the control panel (cPanel) of your hosting account. As WordPress is Open Source, there is no charge for this.
  3. Next you install a ‘theme’. The theme is the basis of your site design, so you pick one that looks similar to how you want your finished site to look. If you choose one from WordPress.org not only are they free, but they can also be installed easily from within the WordPress Admin Panel.
  4. Depending upon the theme you choose and how much you want to change it , about 50-100% of your website design will already be complete, simply by installing the theme. It is now time for you to change the configuration of the theme so that it looks as you want it to.

Because the WordPress application and many of the themes are free, this brings the cost of website development down from thousands of dollars to less than $100 per year (the cost of the domain name and hosting).

If you read about WordPress you will frequently hear that it is so easy to use that you can do it yourself without the need to hire a professional. If this is true, you may be asking yourself why companies such as YourWordPressExpert.com exist? The truth is that it is possible for an absolute beginner to create a WordPress site on their own, and it will be a lot easier for them to do than using more traditional website building tools. However, getting to grips with WordPress takes time as there is a lot to learn, and if you choose a theme with limited configuartion options in the Admin Panel, you will inevitably have to amend the code in order to make the changes you want.

WordPress consulting Services such as YourWordPressExpert.com offer you the benefits of this quick development time without you having to do the work. As WordPress allows us to create websites quickly it means that we charge you less, bringing the cost of sites down from thousands of dollars to only a few hundred dollars. And because it is easy to update the text, it is quick for you to maintain the content of your site on a daily basis without the need of expert assistance.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Jul

07

2010

Domain Name Selection: Useful Tips

By
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 – July 7, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

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Choosing a domain name can be difficult, particularly when it seems all the good ones have already been taken. You might find you have to be creative when with your domain name selection, the useful tips below should help keep you on track.

1. Always choose a “.com”

People are familiar with “.com”, when they guess at a website URL, they’ll likely type “.com”. Some browsers even assume you mean “.com” if you omit the extension e.g. typed www.telephone into Firefox and it automatically directs you to www.telephone.com, and even the iPhone and iPad have a “.com” button on their keyboards.

After you’ve got the “.com”, take measures to protect your brand by registering you new domain with as many extensions as possible. If a competitor tries to register the domain name you picked, and finds it’s already gone they may register the “.net” ,”.info” or country specific version of it, which can lead to confusion amongst your potential clients who may inadvertently buy from your competitor thinking it’s you.

2. Always Remember the KISS Principle.

‘Keep It Simple, Silly” – by which we mean short and easy to remember. Even though the maximum characters allowed in a domain name is sixty seven (including special characters), this does not mean you have to buy a domain name that long.

People tend to forget lengthy domain names – who would remember www.yourwebsitenameandmineisveryfreakinglong.com? Also, a long domain name is prone to misspellings, not only does this frustrate your visitors as they spend time typing it in, but a typing error could land them at your competitor’s door.

3. Avoid Numbers and Words that Sound like Numbers.

Avoid using the numbers “two” and “four” or the words “to” and “for” in your domain name. This is because they might be interchangeably misspelled, for example www.monkeytogo.com can be misspelled as www.monkey2go.com and vice versa.

If it is really necessary, be sure to buy the two versions, and redirect the misspelled version to your real site. Remember though, this will increase your domain name costs, as you will also want to double up on all the other extensions you buy like “.info”, “.net” etc.

4. Use your Company or Brand Name.

People always associate you with your company name or brand name.  So for better recall use it.

5. Do not use words you have to spell out when you are saying them.

Unless you have the money to put into advertising your brand then make sure it’s easy for some one to guess the right spelling. If you have to spell it out every time forget it, most likely your potential customers will!

6. Check if you are allowed to use the name.

Always check if you are infringing on a protected name. A domain may be available but it doesn’t mean you have the legal right to use it.  Check if a certain person or company owns the name or if there is an existing trademark. You do not want to get into trouble down the line, after you’ve invested so much time and money into promoting your domain, so check first.

One final last tip that is very important – do not run the risk of losing your domain. Register your domain at a reliable register like GoDaddy.com, and make sure you select to automatically renew your domain on expiration.

Use these tips on domain selection and register your domain now!

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Jun

30

2010

WordPress Themes for Small Companies

By
Administrator
 – June 30, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

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There are over one thousand free themes available at WordPress.org, ranging from magazine style layouts to two and three column designs. While there are a few specifically designed free WordPress themes for small companies, most themes can be made to work as a business website through customization.

It is possible to extensively customize all free themes by amending the source code. However, if you are not technically minded, then you will want to choose a theme that is easily customizable through the Admin Panel without touching the code. One great advantage of free themes is that you can install them and take a look at the the options available within the Admin Panel before you commit to using that theme for your site. If you decide you don’t like it you’ve not wasted any money and can easily try out another theme.

To help you narrow down your search for a small business theme, here are our favorites:

1. Suffusion

Free Theme - Suffusion.png

Suffusion is flexible and stylish. Editing this theme does not require knowledge of PHP or CSS since there are a great many options in the Admin Panel of your WordPress installation.

  • There are eight possible areas for your widgets; Top Bar Left, Top Bar Right, Left Header, Right Header, Widget Area Below Header, Sidebar 1, Sidebar 2 and Widget Above Footer.
  • There are eight light color schemes and eight dark color schemes you can choose from; (green, pale blue, royal blue, gray 1, gray 2, red, orange and purple).
    You can choose different styles for your header.
  • It is easy to add social network buttons such as Flickr, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tenchnorati, StumbleUpon, and Delicious since it comes with a “follow me” widget for social networking.
2. Atahualpa

Free Theme - Atahualpa

This theme is highly customizable with two hundred and sixty eight options available within the admin panel.

  • It is SEO enabled so there is no need for additional SEO plugin, however if you chooses to install an SEO plugin, it automatically disabled its own SEO features to avoid conflict.
  • This theme is very flexible as you can select the pages the sidebars appear on. So for example, if you do not want the left sidebar to be shown on homepage you can remove it very easily.
  • Tables, block quotes, forms, form buttons and images can easily be customized in terms of border size, padding and color.
3. Arjuna X

Free Theme - Arjuna X

Arjuna X is an elegant theme, compatible with Safari, Opera, Firefox, IE6-8 and Chrome browsers.

  • The header is customizable, with four pre-defined images available.
  • There are three options for sidebar; right, left or no sidebars. You can also choose the sidebar width to small, normal or large.
  • Facebook, RSS and Twitter Buttons are included and you have the option to display them at the top of the sidebar.
  • You do not need to install a pagination plugin as it is already built in with pagination (page navigation) features.
4. Magazine Basic

Free Theme - Magazine Basic

This is a magazine style theme, and the lay-out is extremely customizable and compatible in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

  • You have two options for site width – 800 or 1024 pixels.
  • The theme is advertisement ready, which means you can put your ads within the space provided in the header.
  • There are multiple options for your blog post set up; four ways to display your posts on the front page, the ability to set the number of posts to be displayed, easy to remove author and dates, as well as limit the number of words to be shown in your excerpts.
  • You have three options for your sidebars; two on the left, two on the right, or one on the left and one on the right.  The width of the sidebars can also be set.
5.  My Mag

Free Theme - My Mag

This is a magazine style theme with lots of features that can easily be edited in the Admin Panel.

  • You can upload you own image logo with a maximum height of 175 pixels and maximum width of 500 pixels.
  • There are five color schemes you can choose from; blue, green, orange, red and purple.
  • It has a ready-made slider on the front page, you can choose what category to display and how many posts you want to display. You also have the option to show the News ticker feature.
  • It is easy to add advertisements to the two designated ad areas, by pasting in the url given to you by your affiliate partners or other third party.
6. Swift

Free Theme - Swift

This is a fast loading theme fully optimized for SEO.

  • Swift has a featured post slider where you can choose which category to display.  You also have the option to display your popular posts on the home page.
  • It allows you to display your social bookmarking icons such as; Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, Delicious, Flickr and YouTube.
  • It is Adsense ready. You can display ads in the header, bottom navigation bar, below the post title on single post pages and below the post contents.

Still undecided on which theme to choose? Visit http://wordpress.org/extend/themes and take a look around, there are over one thousand available for download, so try out a few.

Selecting a theme can be difficult, particularly because you will be looking at a pre-customized version of it in the WordPress theme directory. Therefore, if you purchase one of our WordPress Theme Customization Packages, we would be happy to help you select an appropriate theme. Tell us what you are looking for and YourWordPressExpert.com will do the research and produce a short-list for your to pick from. Visit our WordPress Theme Customization page for more details about this service.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

Jun

23

2010

Choosing the Right Website Colors

By
Administrator
 – June 23, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

Tagged with: , ,

An often overlooked task in website development is the importance of choosing the right website colors. Just because you like a particular color doesn’t necessarily make it the right choice for your brand. Colors have a great impact on the overall appeal of your website and can affect people on a psychological level.

First, think about the demographic of your potential customers or target audience. Try not to think that your visitors could be ‘anyone’, but rather think about the most likely people who would be interested in what you’re talking about or what you’re selling. Your color scheme needs to appeal to them, here are couple of things to consider -

  • Gender: Generally men prefer blue while women prefer red.
  • Age: Older people lean towards colors that are relaxing to their eyes while young people prefer bright vivid color.

Second, consider the purpose of your site. You need to choose a color scheme that fits with your website content. Colors are associated with emotions, and you want your audience to react to your site in the desired way. The lists below is of commonly used colors, with a brief description of it’s associated emotions and related concepts.

  • Red: love, desire, passion, hazard, caution, appetite, action and adventure.
  • Blue: honesty, victory, sincerity, serenity, supremacy, professionalism.
  • Green: health, money, environment, animals, fitness, medicinal, life.
  • Orange: relieve, creativeness, party, youth, fun.
  • Purple: monarchy, integrity, vagueness, hesitation, lavishness, dream, extravagance
  • White: purity, cleanliness, hygiene, minimalism.
  • Yellow: inquisitiveness, liveliness, joyfulness, laughter.
  • Pink: gentleness, charm, innocence, youthfulness, softness.
  • Brown: soil, natural world, ethnic, ancient.
  • Gray:  unbiased, apathy, snobbish.
  • Black: seriousness, dark, ambiguity, confidentiality.

Once you have decided on your colors, next look at how they work together, decide on shades that compliment each other. There are a number of online resources that can help you make such decisions, listed below are a selection of these sites.

Choosing the right website colors - pic1
Finally, when deciding what color to use where on your site, remember to consider the readability factor. Easiest to read is black text on a white background. White text on a black background can be a good choice too, though is best reserved for younger audiences as it is not as easy on the eyes. If you want to add color to your text area do it subtly, by replacing black with an extremely dark shade of blue or brown, or replace white with a very pale cream or grey. Alternatively stick with black text on a white background for the main text area, but use color for headings as these will have a larger font size.

The colors of your website say a lot about you, your product or you brand, so make sure you’re sending the right message. Choose well and make sure they speak to your target audience in the right way.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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Jun

16

2010

WordPress: Your Budget Solution

By
Administrator
 – June 16, 2010Posted in: Articles, WordPress

Tagged with: ,

The internet presents huge market potential for small business owners, whether you are already established or are a start-up there is a lot to be gained by creating a web presence for your company and WordPress is your budget solution. Thus, by reaching out to a larger audience you can increase your opportunities to serve more customers, be it globally or in your own geographical area.

A website can assist in the following ways:

  • Help people who have heard of you (perhaps by referral) find you without having your contact details.
  • Inform prospects of the variety of services you offer.
  • Give your company credibility, if you can’t be found online – people may think you’re either not serious about your business or they’ve got your name wrong.
  • A website can act as a 24 hour sales center, allowing you to sell products or service all day long without your involvement in the transaction.
  • It can help you create a list of prospects, by capturing the email address of interested visitors so that you can later communicate directly with them.
  • If your website includes a blog or a forum, it also allows you to engage with your potential customers as they have the ability to contribute to your site.

With WordPress you can have all of the above benefits of a website, at a fraction of the cost.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


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Jun

09

2010

Web Hosting Choice for WordPress

By
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 – June 9, 2010Posted in: Articles, Setting up a Website

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Once you’ve purchased your domain name, you need somewhere to host it, as all domain name registration does is give you the right to use that web address. There are so many web hosting packages on the market today, and most (but not all) are compatible with WordPress.

Your web hosting choice for WordPress, should be based on the following. It must have:

  • PHP 4.3 or greater
  • MySQL 4.1.2 or greater

And should also ideally have:

  • An Apache or Nginx server
  • SuPHP or similar (which executes PHP securely)

If you’re not sure if the package you’re looking at has these then send their sales team an email with the four bullet points above.

You will also want to consider other features when comparing hosting packages, though it is up to you to decide which ones you  really need. Here is a checklist:

  1. Does it have POP3 enabled? This will allow you to download your emails to a single-location such as an Outlook or Apple Mail account.
  2. Does it have IMAP enabled? This allows you to check your email from several computers by forwarding emails to your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo account.
  3. Can you have multiple domains in one hosting account? Many hosting companies offer packages with ‘unlimited domains’ which means you pay the same amount no matter how many websites they host for you.
  4. Does it have one-click WordPress installation using Fantastico? This will make installing WordPress on your site a lot easier, though it is possible to install it manually.
  5. What back-up procedures do they offer for your site?
  6. What support is available?
  7. What are their uptime guarantees?
  8. What have other WordPress users experienced?
  9. Do they tie you into a contract or offer a money back guarantee?

With prices starting under $2 per month it is easy to see why people make mistakes in purchasing hosting, they end up going for the cheapest without checking these other factors. Now that Google has officially annouced that they take speed into consideration when ranking sites, it is now more important than ever to make sure you are getting good value from your hosting provider, not just a good price.

After experiencing problems with a previous host, YourWordPressExpert.com looked into hosting providers using the criteria above. We were very surprised that our former host had performed so badly with regards to speed issues because they tended to rank near the top on hosting reviews. However, when searching for reviews by customers using WordPress, they told a different story and many other customers were too experiencing slow page load times on their WordPress sites just as we were.

In YourWordPressExpert.com’s search for a new host we shortlisted two – BlueHost.com and HostGator.com

BlueHost has a proven track record with 14 years hosting experience. They have good customer service, offering 24/7 live support via email, live chat and phone, and speed tests show they have fast loading websites. Their terms of service are simple and easy to understand so you will be assured that there are no hidden clauses. There are drawbacks though, BlueHosts plan is inflexible, they only offer one plan and it costs $6.95 per month, though this does include one free domain name.

HostGator is the industry leader, and they guarantee 99.9% uptime. Their plans are very flexible, and upgrading and downgrading is easy. You have the option to pay monthly and are not bounded by a long term contract. The main drawback of HostGator is the price, costing up to $14.95 per month for the Business Plan. However, if you only have one website then their ‘Hatching Plan’ does work out cheaper than BlueHost. Also for larger companies they offer VPS and dedicated hosting which means you get your own servers giving you greater control over their set up, increased speed; uptime and security.

YourWordPressExpert.com chose HostGator because of the flexibility, having multiple plans means our hosting package can grow as our business grows. Having switched once, we know how much of a pain it is, and would rather avoid it if we can. We also find it easier to keep all of our domains registered with GoDaddy.com as this makes it convenient for managing their renewals and for switching web hosts should we need to. For this reason we were not enticed by the free domain offered by BlueHost. Unless money really is tight, do not be persuaded by a ‘free domain’, this is just another tactic to tie you to the host as people fear loosing their domain name when they move hosting providers (and this can happen if you don’t do it right).

As YourWordPressExpert.com did not try BlueHost we can’t comment on their performance, though their offer and WordPress user reviews indicated they would be a good choice for start up companies on a low budget. We can say however, that we are very happy with HostGator and from experience recommend this to all of our clients.

Other services offered by Your WordPress Experts:


Affordable Expert WordPress Web Services

1. WordPress Theme Customization Services

2. Affordable Quality WordPress Websites

3. Website Redo

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