Have you stumbled upon a website (WordPress or otherwise) where you, shockingly, see the content that you sweated bullets over while writing it? I know I have, and I’ve had a few clients tell me that they’ve seen their content out there on other sites as well.

Most people are pretty honest and wouldn’t think of stealing your content, but unless you take measures to prevent someone from copying and then pasting your content onto their site, your site is free game for the dishonest of the world.

But there is a solution to prevent those who are brazen enough to copy and paste  plagiarize your content. It’s a very simple little WordPress plugin called Blog Protector that:

• disables right click on your site.
• disables selection of text on your site

No more highlighting text, copying and pasting  stealing from my site.

To install Blog protector, go to Plugins –> Add New.  Then type “Blog Protector” in the search box. Install it and voila!  Just one more level of protection for your business.

Your WordPress site is a go-to place for your clients. You post great, instructional content and people come back time and again. They read your posts and follow along as best they can under the circumstances.

But it’s not easy to go back and forth between your site and theirs as they complete the steps. 

Now imagine them being able to print your content as a PDF and have your content at their fingertips in under 30 seconds!

How cool is that!

First a little history… There have always been plugins that allow the visitor to print your content. Add to any, Add This, and Share This type plugins come to mind. But they don’t allow for your document to be printed out as a super organized and branded PDF.

Print Friendly Button

Print Friendly (the name of the plugin) is a great little addition to your WordPress site if you want your content to be printable in a really nicely formatted style. (And with your domain name at the top and bottom of the printed document.)

.
It’s as simple as this:

Your visitor clicks on the Print Friendly button, a new window opens where they’ll see the following 3 options:

1.  Print (your blog post) as a PDF

2. Save to their computer as a PDF

3. Email it to someone as a PDF

They can also choose the font size (save paper), as well as choose to print with images intact or to remove the images in your post.

And that’s it — another simple and easy way to make your content even more user-friendly (and share-able).

To have this or any other plugins installed on your site, contact me today.

Recently I’ve been getting questions about how to change a YouTube video thumbnail in the new, updated YouTube.  I did a little research in the YouTube help files to see what’s changed,  but the process appears to be the same as always.

Here is my original video over at YouTube, or watch it below. If you know of any updated steps to changing your YouTube video thumbnail, please leave a comment and a link. I think everyone would appreciate it.

.

I’ve been on a bit of an email marketing service provider learning curve lately as I have been making many changes to my business. I had used 1shoppingcart for several years, but became disillusioned after they introduced paid support only and took away the ability to see any statistics about about my list and my campaigns. Of course there was no reduction in price for the reduction in services.

(I do recommend 1shoppingcart if you need a full shopping cart and a complicated affiliate management program. They are the best).

I was well on my way to setting up my account and messages in another service, when I realized that I had little to no way of creating a series of messages. Since I like to offer my list free mini-courses via autoresponder, I quickly realized that this service would definitely not meet my needs.  I called, got my money back, and moved on.

Which Autoresponder Service Have I Finally Chosen? 

Aweber and This Is Why:

1.  Create Not Just One List, but Multiple Lists Based on Your Subscriber’s Needs

What a novel idea!  This little secret is one of the best inventions out there! Now you can stop annoying your subscribers (and risk having them unsubscribe) by sending out content they are not interested in. With multiple lists, you can send only the content your subscribers signed up to receive.

How? Aweber allows you to send out email to your lists separately by segmenting your subscribers based on what they opted in to receive from you.

AND you can create optin forms that automatically places each subscriber on a particular list. You will then have the choice to communicate with the lists individually, or all at once.

3.  But Do They Deliver?

It’s very important to know whether your subscribers are receiving your email or if they are just activating the spam function.  After all, what is the point of all your list and relationship building if your subscribers don’t receive your email?

Aweber has one of the highest deliverability rates in the industry. And they are constantly working with the internet service providers ISP) so that your messages from Aweber are delivered and not routed to your subscriber’s junk or spam folder.

4.  Direct to Your Social Media Accounts 

Aweber is on top of the latest Social Media trends and because of that, you can automatically and instantly post your messages to Twitter and Facebook.

5. Create Great “Curb Appeal” With Their Already-Designed-For-You Templates

If you’re not a programmer (and who is?) you’re in for a treat because you can still have great-looking opt-in forms and newsletters. Aweber offers a great selection of both templates for newsletters and optin forms that you can either use as-is OR easily customize to suit your business.

Note: Apparently Aweber is changing their editor to make their already great system even better!  Look for it soon…

6.  Subscriber Stats:

The #1 asset of all business is the list and relationship with it. It follows then that sending out successful email campaigns is vital.  To be successful at this, you must be able to understand your subscribers. It’s especially important to know:

• How many subscribers you have
• How they found you (where they came from)
• Whether they click on links within your email
• If they unsubscribe, when and why

Aweber does a really good job of subscriber management. You can view detailed reports (even have them mailed to you) that include all the info you need to keep providing relevant and thoughtful information to them.

7.  Customer Support?

Aweber offers telephone, email, and chat support (personally, I find chat support very frustrating) where you can discuss any problem you might be having directly with a customer relations person. They also offer (free) webinars, short videos, an e-course, and tutorials so you can learn everything you need to help you send out successful campaigns.

8. The Price is Right

Aweber’s pricing is very competitive. In fact, you can test drive their service for just $1. Once you’ve had the opportunity to see how it all works, your plan would then increase to the very low price of just $19 per month.

As mentioned earlier, you may be able to find less expensive options, but the lower price is reflected in lower deliverability rates, fewer options, and not so great support.

Do your research, but I think you’ll agree that Aweber is best for small business. But no matter who you choose, just start building your email list as soon as possible.

If you’ve been looking for a very good step by step guide to Aweber, visit this page with more information:

EMAIL MARKETING WITH AWEBER 

Disclaimer: Links mentioned within this post lead to my affiliate links and such case I will get compensated for recommending those products. However, I will never recommend anything that I don’t personally believe in.

I’ve been using this plugin for over 3 years and it has never failed to be useful. It’s one of the simplest plugins to use and once you get your feet wet with it, you’ll find a ton of uses for it.

What are some of the best uses for this plugin?

• quickly add your YouTube videos to build traffic (instead of sending people to YouTube, send them to your site to view it)
• interlink to articles, posts, or pages within your own site (huge SEO purpose!)
• add news articles (back up your information with up to the minute information)
• add Wikipedia articles (excellent as a reference)
• search and add Google content (easily find relevant information on Google)
• recommend a book (your own?)
• add an image or two (“decorate” your posts to create interest)

Check it out here:

For help installing and setting up this plugin, contact me via the form below:

If you are like most of my clients, you’re new to business (at least new to online business) and/or new to marketing your business. I hear over and over that the difficulty they face is in knowing where, why, or how to begin building a list. So let’s start with the why:

There are 7 important reasons for building a list for your business:

 1.  Automatic Follow-Up Processes:

(Ahhh automation… The dream come true for the stretched-to-the-limit business owner). Having a list allows you to set repeatable tasks on auto-pilot.  With a list and your autoresponder service,  you can have a follow-up system in place that makes sales for you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

 2.  Strategically and Continuously Build Your Business

Other than being available via chat on your website 24/7, how can you “be there” for your website visitor? Well, new prospects can be signing up to your email list automatically, every day, without your help or involvement. This is a way to continuously build your business without a lot of repeated effort.

 3.  ”Capture” Visitors

You’ve put a lot of time and (financial) resources into your website, and this will really be a waste if you don’t have any way to “connect” with your visitors.  You have to begin adding systems and the most important one is to capture visitors.

Most will come and go from your site (forever) without even leaving a mark. Why not at least attempt to stay in touch with them? It’s an easy system to implement with a simple opt in form that captures their name and email address so you can begin to building a relationship with them.

4.  Stay on the Forefront of Their Minds

Who was it that sang, “You were always on my mind…”? It came to mind as I was writing this. Why? Because most of your business connections will not be ready to buy from you right away. People use the internet to do research, compare prices, and get free information.

If you’ve got a system in place for capturing their name and email address, you can stay on their mind by using your email autoresponders to send out your messages. When they are ready to buy what you offer they’ll remember you and what you offer because you’ve kept in touch with them all along the way.

Here’s mine. Sign up now — I’d love to send you updates like this one. AND I’ve got a great free gift for you. (Check it out here: FREE GIFT)

5.  Save Time

Very few small business owners have a lot of extra time. Most women today are dividing their time between being mom, grandma, daughter, wife, housekeeper, cook, volunteer, worker, and business owner. Having tools to help put anything on auto pilot is usually a very welcome addition to their lives.

So instead of having to share your message one (you) to one (one client at a time) repeatedly, your autoresponder and list will enable you to reach one (you) to many (your whole list).  Imagine not only saving time, but also leveraging your time into long-term profits.

6.  (Appear to) Be Super-Human

It’s not humanly possible to “personally” connect with all your visitors (prospects) and customers unless you are using an automated system. Your autoresponder system allows you to send out a message  that appears to be written specifically for that person. It’s a great way to build relationships (and the “know, like, and trust” factor) that are vital to building your business.  

7.  Increase Your Sales Too

But the goal isn’t to just be awesome (although this is also a great goal too!) and send out lots of free, personalized information. What you really want to do is increase sales and profits. Nothing else can help you deliver these results the way an email list can.

SUMMARY: You now have 7 good reasons to begin to capture names and stay “always on their minds” so you can increase sales and save time while appearing to be super human as you message your list to strategically build your business. What are you thoughts? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear…

By the way, I have been testing out list building and autoresponder service providers, and I have to say that Aweber leads the pack for a lot of reasons.

Find out why here (and receive a 30 trial for only $1):  http://aweber.com

Disclaimer: The links mentioned in this post may lead to my affiliate links and in such case, I will get compensated for recommending the product. However, I will never recommend anything that I don’t personally believe in.

is a series of steps that you, the WordPress site owner, take to move your site up in the search results of the search engines. As I mentioned in Part 1, ideally you want to  increase your rankings so that your site shows up on the first page of the search engine results.

What Steps Can You Take To Optimize Your (New) WordPress Website?

1.  Keywords

Know the search phrases and words that your prospects type into the search engines to find the products and services that you offer. This is imperative — not an option.  If you missed the Free Keyword Research Tool and Tutorial from Part 1, you can GET IT HERE

Once you know them, use these words on your pages and in your content. There are entire books and  online courses about how to find and use keywords. A little research will pay off nicely.

2.  Good Content

Search engines look at the content on your website. They scan your content looking for keywords, keyword phrases and other relevant words and terms. Often people mistake the meaning of this and load their content with their keywords and phrases, even to the point of making their content nonsensical. But the search engines have very complicated algorithms to rate the quality of the content too. Search engines want to ensure that they are sending people to quality websites. not just those that are packed with the right keyword/keyword phrases.

3.  Linking

Another element that search engines look at are the links to and from your website. They look at incoming links – links from other websites and blogs and they look at internal links – linking within your own site (from one page to another within your site).

a. Incoming Links

Quality content helps create incoming links. Here’s what Google says about building incoming links to your site:

Create unique and compelling content on your site and the web in general

• Make videos, do original research, and post interesting stuff on a regular basis. If you’re passionate about your site’s topic, there are lots of great avenues to engage more users.
• Teach readers new things, uncover new news, be entertaining or insightful, show your expertise, interview different personalities in your industry and highlight their interesting side. Make your site worthwhile.

• Participate thoughtfully in blogs and user reviews related to your topic of interest. Offer your knowledgeable perspective to the community.

• Provide a useful product or service. If visitors to your site get value from what you provide, they’re more likely to link to you.Source:  Google | Webmaster Central Blog  You can click this link for more information

Social networking, guest blogging, and article marketing can all have a profound effect on the number of incoming links. Build relationships online to motivate people to link to your website.

b.  Internal Linking

Internal linking means that you have links from one page or article to another on your own site. Internal linking is perfect for situations where you have content that you want to draw attention to AND rank well in the search engines. Just create a link to it from other content or pages. For example, in my opening paragraph above you’ll see that Part 1 is a hyperlink to the first blog post in this series.

If you want have a sales page to a product or service and want it to rank really well in the search engines, then create a link to your sales page from your contact page, from your landing page, and any other pages that it makes sense to link to.

Keywords, Linking and Good Content are simple steps you can take to increase your ranking in the search engines. It’s not magic or difficult. Give them a try and come back to post your results here. We’d love to hear about your success.

Search

Have a search function 

Having a search function on your site is a great idea. Just like in Google, visitors can use keywords to search within your site for the content they are looking for.

It’s a good idea to have this above the fold (before they have to scroll) for the visitor’s convenience so they can speedily find the content they are interested in.

Some templates have the search field built into the navigation bar and others offer you a sidebar widget.

You can go beyond just the search function and add both archives and category widgets in the sidebar. The archives widget allows your visitor to find posts of interest that are sorted by date. The category widget allows them to search your posts by the categories you write under.

PS  The words that people use to search online are important to know because their keywords have to match the keywords you use on your site.  To learn more about this, get my free report: FREE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOL

Contact information

Have a contact page

The best option for adding your contact information is to have it on its own separate page. You’ll then have a link on the navigation bar and with one click, your visitor will have all of your information (telephone, email, and/or contact form) at their fingertips.

I have also included my toll free phone number in my header (banner) on my site.

Opt in form

Offer a way to keep in touch

This is a very important step as this is how you will keep in touch with your visitors. Have it front and center on your site, before the fold. Offer a valuable gift to those who subscribe. It’s a great way to let your clients and visitors know about your products, services, special offers, and upcoming sales or events.

By the way, Aweber is the best service I’ve used so far. They are more cost effective, they have all the bells and whistles, AND they don’t charge extra to see your stats (how many opens etc).  Check them out for yourself:  AWEBER

Design

Keep it easy on the eyes

The design of your page should support your brand image. But it should also be simple and not distract from your goals or purpose. Sidebars allow for the containment of additional information, and provide a way to have even more information above the fold.

Colors convey a lot of information and your color choice should be a good representation of your (type of) business or the image your are trying to present.

Word of caution:

• Rotating banners, flashing things, and similar effects should be avoided unless your site is just an affiliate site.
• Avoid anything that slows down the loading speed of your site. (flash)
• Avoid using a dark background and light colored font. They are almost impossible to read online

Community Building

Interact

Integrate social networking buttons (lots of plugins easily manage this step for you). Let people find you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Use Social Bookmarking plugins as well. These are the little icons you see after a post where people can share your content on any number of bookmarking sites.

Allow for and encourage comments. There are several plugins out there that require people to sign up for accounts and jump through other hoops to leave a comment. I don’t recommend this. Make it as simple as possible for your visitors to interact with you.

When people feel involved or able to contribute they tend to revisit a website.

What are you thoughts? Let us know in a comment.

Get my Free Keyword Research Tool and Tutorial by Clicking Here

I am a proud Aweber affiliate and will receive a commission when  anyone signs up for Aweber by clicking the link provided in this blog post.

Kathleen

Didn’t read part 1?  Click here: http://www.thesavvyva.com/9-wordpress-essentials-part-1/

Is usually associated with your main domain name.

For example, on my site it would be the difference between
http://thesavvyva.com and http://www.thesavvyva.com/contact-the-savvy-va

It’s the first page your visitors will see (unless they have gotten to your site via a link to something else).  Since it’s the main page of your site, it’s important to let your visitors know what you do or have to offer your wares and services. Introduce what you do, for who, why, and so on.

Here is an example of what not to do, from the real world:

I have walked past a store in my town many, many times. I would glance in the window and see Crocs (gardening shoes). I would think to myself, “Oh, it’s a Crocs store. Don’t need Crocs so I’ll just keep going”.

But yesterday when I walked past, I noticed some big containers of protein powder in the other window. This time I thought. “Huh?” Curious, I peered into the window past the display and realized that it’s a health food store.  I just happened to be in the market for some Stevia so I went in.  But had I not really looked through that window, I would never have gone into the store.

What happens when people come to your site? Do they know you are a health food store, or will they mistake you for a Crocs store? Can they tell at a glance what your site is about? Is there enough information to help them determine if you have what they want (need).  Be bold. This is your BUSINESS. If you were a brick and mortar store, would you hide all the goods behind a curtain? Of course not.

By the way, I would really like to report that once inside the store it all made sense, but it didn’t. The inside was as confusing as the window display. I found a guy to show me where the Stevia was; I paid; and left.

Has to have an objective.

What do you want visitors to do when they arrive at your landing page? Opt in to receive a free report? Click a link to go to a catalogue page?  Contact you? or something else?  This page has to support your objective.

2.  About Me Page

Tell your story.

This page is normally the second page that is viewed on any given site and should provide potential clients with information about you and your work. Think of this page as your answer to the “tell me about yourself” question in a job interview.

This is essential — after all, who wants to hire just anybody? People want to know who they are dealing with. It’s completely acceptable  and reasonable for your potential clients to do a little background research on you. Your about me page can make or break a business relationship.

Take it a step further than just publishing a resume or a list of accomplishments. Personalize the page and tell them why you are the best person to do business with.

 3.  Simple navigation

Creating an easy to understand navigation function for your site is vital.

This is the actual navigation bar for my site. It is positioned right under my header (banner) and contains all the links anyone needs to easily navigation around my site. Several of these links have drop down menus, for example, the WP Support link has several support packages listed one under the other. Clicking on any of them will take you to that particular page.

Website traffic always increases when the site navigation design is simple and straightforward. It also makes it more likely that you’ll have returning visitors because they’ll remember how easy it was to find your information.

At the very least, your navigation bar should be above the fold (which means that it is visible without scrolling).

Here is a another takeaway from the real world:

I received someone’s newsletter this morning and they are promoting a new product. One of the bonuses was an offer from another company to do a WordPress website review. Their sales copy was very compelling and I wanted to see who this hip new company was.

I got there and was unable to figure out who she was. There was no navigation at all other than 3 links in the sidebar, (that I believe most people would not know to click). There was no immediately visible means to contact this business either. Eventually I found the navigation at the bottom of the site after scrolling quite a way down the page. So overall it was not a good design.

The Studiopress templates have what are called breadcrumbs. If you look at the example in the image to the left, you’ll notice that across the top it says “You are here”  followed by Home / WP Support / WordPress By the Hour (10).

It is another way of making navigation that much simpler. If you were to click on WP Support, it would take you back to my general support packages, and then if you click on home, you’d be at my landing page.

.

PS  would you want your WordPress site to be assessed by this company?  Check my service here: WORDPRESS SITE ANALYSIS

4.  Content is King Queen

Content is what drives traffic to your website.

People search online for information that will solve their problem, whether they need a service, a product, or a just a quick tip showing them how to do something.

Do you post enough content on your site so that you show up in (ideally their first page of) Google’s search results? Do you write blog posts? Do you create YouTube videos with solutions to the problems your potential market or niche have? Do you offer free reports? Cover all the bases. It will pay off over time.

PS  The words that people use to search online are important to know because their keywords have to match the keywords you use on your site.  To learn more about this, get my free report: FREE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOL

 Next blog post: Wordpress Website Essentials: Part 2

THEY ARE SEARCH OPTIMIZED

THE CHILD THEMES ARE TURN-KEY DESIGNS