Do you have Goals for your website? You probably set some when you first built it, but I am talking specifically about “Goals” in Google Analytics — an excellent way to track visitor behavior and analyze the R.O.I. for your web effort.  You should be tracking “conversions” (number of visitors who buy or become clients), via the “funnel” (series of pages at your site leading them to a conversion).  You can read more about this important strategy in this blog post.  Contact me to get your Goals set up.

Trusted Email Marketing

Remember to stay in constant contact. A colleague of mine, Bob Leonard from B2BContentConversations, was just hired for two jobs as a result of enewsletters he sent out several months ago.  Newsletters require discipline, but it pays off.  We offer two options to help with your email campaigns — a Pro Package through Constant Contact, and a Do It Yourself Package, where we install an excellent eNewsletter program in your WordPress website, build you a template and you go ahead and write and send a newsletter to key contacts.  Constant Contact provides your own account with support and tracking stats to see how many recipients opened your newsletter (you can take a free, 60-Day trial to check it out).  Read more about the two packages… here.  Contact me when you need help setting these key marketing tools up for your business.

New B2B Website on problematic Windows Hosting: We just finished a new B2B business blog for Wang & Wang, an international law firm, and wrestled with making it work properly in a Windows server environment.  The majority of hosting plans (like our own at WebFaddsHosting.com), are based on the Linux Operating System… the one most “friendly” to WordPress installations.  While WordPress will work on Windows based servers, a couple of key functions — automatic database backups, and “permalink” structure (see next item) — could not be activated.  Bottom line: Why did we install it on a Windows server?  That’s what the client wanted.  Does it run as well as on a Linux server?  No.  Choose a Linux based hosting solution for your dynamic WordPress based websites.

SEO Matters:  One main reason we develop dynamic websites and business blogs on the WordPress platform, is that it comes with built in/automated methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  But you have to configure it properly.  There’s automated “pinging” (your site will alert a number of indexing services when you publish new posts), but you need to input a good list of services.  There are user and search friendly “permalinks” (url structure) you can set.  And, a number of SEO related plugins which both strengthen your site, and save you some time by automating insertion of tags, titles, etc.  I’ve written a series on SEO Matters… here.  We also have a service package, “Max-SEO“, that can help you quite a bit.

Let me know when we can help with SEO strengthening, enewsletters, and development of your dynamic, automated websites. I’ll be pleased to provide a prompt estimate for your projects — reach me via our Contact Page.

By Scott Frangos, Managing Partner — WebFadds.com

Looking for ways to develop your business? Here’s an overview with tips on ways to reach and develop contacts with your clients and prospects, and ways to use new WordPress 2.6 features to create dynamic, compelling content for your CMS websites and business blogs.

New Pro eNewsletter Service Keeps you in Constant Contact…

Trusted Email Marketing

WebFadds.com has teamed up with the highly regarded Constant Contact service to bring you the ability to reach out, connect, and stay in contact with key customers and prospects.  Email Marketing by Constant Contact helps you create high-impact, professional-looking emails, and build strong, successful, and lasting relationships with your customers, clients, or members.  Why use a newsletter in addition to business blog posts? In a word, for “proactive” communication. Collect business cards and contacts at your trade shows, then make sure you connect on a regular schedule. Read More and take a FREE 60-day Trial…

Business Benefit SlideShows Focus Prospects on Results…

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, our new Business Benefit Slide Shows are worth, well… the value of a good slide presentation on how your business will help potential customers.  We recently created one for our client NextBus (see NEXTBusNews.com) which they use on their home page to explain the benefits of using their service.  Learn More…

WordPress 2.6 Helps you Get ‘Er Done…

WordPress 2.6 was released yesterday, so let’s take a look at a some ways this new version can help you get ‘er done.  I’ve included a short video overview, and highlights of some key features with tips on how they can help you develop successful content. Most of you know that our Dynamic, automated website solutions are built on the WordPress platform as a Content Management solution, and we can help you upgrade to this new version.

• Use Post Revisions to facilitate writing and editing with your content team.  Scroll down beneath your writing window to “Post Revisions” (bottom), to review your staff content writer’s work:
  

  Post revisions show up in WordPress 2.6 at bottom of editing area showing time and username of writers.

• Use Post Revisions to help you hone your writing skills. In Journalism school, writers develop skills by considering different “leads” (opening paragraphs) for their articles.  Leads are what hook your visitors and convince them to read your content.  They’re important.  Finish your first draft, then choose a different way to lead off your post (examples include a question lead, a quote lead, or a summary lead — I’ll write more about this in my series on CopyWriting here).  Compare your two drafts side-by-side, and choose the one you think will most interest your readers and grab their attention:
  

  Above, you can compare revisions side by side to gauge which will create a more compelling "lead" (click to enlarge).

• Use the new “caption” feature, as I’ve done above, to easily create captions underneath images for clarity, and also to automatically boost SEO since captions are automatically used in “Alt” tags in WordPress 2.6.

Watch the video for a quick overview of WordPress 2.6 Features: