5 Reasons Your WordPress Blog Should Be Self Hosted

March 11, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m a HUGE fan of WordPress for websites and blogging, as anyone that reads here regularly will know.

But did you know that there is a difference between having your blog hosted by WordPress themselves, and hosting it on your own hosting (known as self hosting)? If you didn’t, don’t worry, a lot of people don’t.

To clarify, if your blog site has an address something like http://yourcompanyname.wordpress.com or http://yourcompanyname.blogspot.com then it’s hosted by either WordPress or Blogger / Blogspot.

If your blog has an address something like www.yourcompany.com/blog then the chances are it’s self hosted (although hat’s not always the case, drop me a line if you’re not sure and want to check).

So, read on to find out just 5 reasons (there are many more) why you should be self hosting your WordPress blog if you’re serious about your business blogging.

You’ll have more credibility

It used to be that if you had an @aol.com email address or a geocities domain name, you were seen pretty much as ‘second class’. And the newer version of that seems to be having a WordPress.com or Blogspot.com domain name for your blog.

It’s pretty simple – do you want people to see that your blog is a part of your business, or are you happy with them thinking you’re ‘playing’ at it?

I know and you know that there are some great blogs out there that AREN’T self hosted – but if you want to be taken seriously in 2012 then your blogsite needs to be either a part of your main site or have it’s own domain and be hosted on its own web space.

Are you serious about your blog?

You’ll get better search engine positions

A simple fact of life is that free blog sites just don’t do as well in the search engines. Quite odd really, especially as you consider that Blogger is owned by Google! But that’s how it is.

Add to this the fact that you can get some great SEO plugins for self hosted WordPress and it’s a no brainer.

Do you want your potential customers to find you when hey search on Google?

You’ll have control

OK, it’s unlikely to happen, but what would you do if WordPress decided to take down your blog? Or remove your blog posts? Or jus remove access to them for a while?

While you’re hosing your blog on a freebie site, you’re at their mercy – your content belongs to them and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Self host, and YOU’RE in control – you can back up your posts, move them where you like, and run pretty much no risk of your account being closed down and your hard work wiped out.

Would you like to be more in control of your content?

You’ll have a better choice of themes

There’s a massive range of themes on WordPress.com, but let’s face it, how often have you seen the same themes being used time and time again by different industries? With self hosted WordPress you can have a hue choice of themes, from an out of the box standard one to one that matches or complements your own website.

Do you want to stand out by looking different to everyone else?

You’ll have better plugins

I alluded to this earlier with the mention of SEO plugins, but there are a whole array of plugins that you can use on self hosted WordPress but not on the free hosted version.

From Social Media plugins to sharing plugins to commenting plugins to analytics plug ins and beyond – if you’re serious about your blog you need quite a few of these plugins.

Are you serious about your blog?

In short, self hosted WordPress is the way to go if you want to look professional, have more control, have flexibility and make the most of your blog – what’s stopping you going self hosted today?

Like this post? Check out our Wacky WordPress offer to take you from free hosted to self hosted at a drastically knockdown price!

 

 

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Filed Under: Admin posts, Blog, Blogging, Google, Latest Offers, Musings, No no no! Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Google+ – A Circles Tutorial

March 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

Circles is one of the things that really sets Google+ apart from other social networks. In Facebook for example, your friends are your friends – It doesn’t matter if that person’s the postman or you sometimes talk to or your best friend from childhood.

In Google+, you can create circles and put different people in different circles. You can then choose to share things only to certain people and not to others. For example, you might share only professional updates with your work contacts, while sharing photos of a night out with your friend circle.

The people in your circles won’t know what circles you put them in. It gives you a whole lot of control over your data, without any potentially embarrassing situations.

Here’s how to use Google+’s circles feature.

Step 1: Click Circles

To access your circles settings, click on “Circles” in the top navigation boxes.

You’ll see a screen of the people who are already in your circles.

Step 2: See Potential Friends

Click on “People who’ve added you” to see who added you to their circles. You can think of these are your “friend requests.”

Step 3: Drag and Drop Into Circles

To add someone to a circle, just drag and drop them into the circles along the bottom.

Step 4: Create a New Circle

To create a new circle, click or drag and drop into the “new circle” circle.

The create circle box will pop up. Choose a name for your new circle, then either add people to the circle or create an empty circle.

Step 5: Adding by Search

If you want to add someone who hasn’t already added you, do a search for them along the top bar.

Click on the name to go to their profile page. Then click “Add to circles” to add them to a circle.

Step 6: Circle Specific Stream

Want to only see photos and updates from your friends? Or want to see what your family is up to? Google+ makes it easy to see only updates from the people you want to see updates from.
On the left hand side of your home screen, just click one of the circles whose streams you want to see. Google+ will update and only display updates from people in those circles.

Step 7: Circle-Specific Posts

To post an update to only certain circles, click on the status update bar and start writing a post. A box with who can view your post will pop up along the bottom.

To remove a circle, click the small “x” in the top right corner. To add a circle that can see your post, click “Add more people.”

You now learned how to see who’s in your circle, who’s added you to their circles, how to add people to your own circles, how to create a new circle, how to add people who didn’t add you to a circle using search, how to sort your stream by circles and how to post to only specific circles.

Google+’s circles features really makes it easy to use social networking without “leaking” updates you don’t leaked to the wrong people. It allows you to connect with the different people in your life in different ways.

Sarah

 

Like this post? Don’t forget to check out the 30 Day Google+ Challenge, and kickstart your G+ account in just 30 days!

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How do I Improve my Google Plus Profile?

February 7, 2012 By 1 Comment

A sneak peek! I twisted Sarah’s arm and she’s giving us a quick look inside the 30 Day Google+ Challenge. Enjoy!

You’ve got your Google Plus account, adjusted your privacy settings and set up your Circles. What do you do next?

It’s now time to take a look at your Google Plus Profile. G+ profiles show up in searches and it helps people decide what circle they add you too. It’s important to get your G+ profile right. Your profile shows when someone presses the “about” tab on your profile.

Let’s take a look at my friend Steven’s profile. Imagine you’ve never met him or heard of him before.

click to enlarge image

If you had just discovered Steven’s profile, you’d be hooked enough to add him to a circle.

  • Add images. Make your profile pic a pic of you. The 5 images across the top can be images that describe you, your work or things that you find important.
  • Add links to make it easier for the reader to understand who you are and what you do.
  • Remember it’s ok to brag / boast about something. Put something memorable in this section.
  • It’s okay to leave things out. If you don’t want to mention what schools, colleges and universities you went to, that’s ok. If you add them it can reassure people that you are “educated” in what you do – it can add to your credibility.
  • Add links to your other social profiles so people can follow you on those sites.
  • Remember to add links to your websites and blogs

The more hooks you have in your G+ profile the more likely you are to be added to a Circle that’s listened too. The secret is to get the right balance of business and personal. I work to the rule if I wouldn’t want my mum to read it it, then I don’t write it.

Depending on your privacy settings you can see what type of content you share in your circles. For me this is a big indicator of where to place a person. If it’s things that I find interesting then it’s easy to place them. If I see they share other people’s content I can see that they are getting around and may share interesting things even if I don’t like their recent shares.

If I see a logo as a profile pic and a heap of self promotional tripe then I don’t add the person to anything. I move on to find someone else of interest.

Take a good hard look at your G+ profile.

Would you follow you?

Sarah

If you haven’t already grab a copy of the 30 Day Google+ Challenge here

Grab it pre-sale asap

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Filed Under: 30 Day Challenges, Google, Latest Offers, Musings, offers Tagged With: , , ,

Don’t bother with Google Plus

February 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

If you have been off visiting another planet, buried deep in the snow or only read mainstream newspapers I’ll forgive you for not hearing and knowing about Google Plus. Anywhere else, and you have no excuse ;)

Google Plus is a terrific tool for small businesses everywhere and if you get to grips with it you will reap the rewards.

It takes a bit of work, if you don’t like work stop reading now and go and play with your kittens or something. There’s no such things as a free lunch and Google isn’t handing you one right now either.

A little effort, spread over 30 days and you’ll see terrific results.

Grab it pre-sale asap

1. Go and get a Google Plus account. Right now.

2. Create a circle and call it “just for me”. Drop the URL of this post into that circle. You know where to find this article now, so come back often.

3. Add a G+ button to your website and blog 

4. Ask some friends to Plus a page. Make note of the pages usual traffic and see how much better it does once it’s been plussed. A week is all it takes to see better results.

5. Getting into it? Need some more tools? Take a look at this post  - 13 tools for smarter Google Plus action.

6. If you need more info on how to start Google plus; Chris Brogan has some screencasts on how how to change your privacy settings.

7. Anson Alexander has a great post on how to use your Circles.

8. Sharing good content with relevant circles is essential to growing your relationships. Need  a Google Plus bookmarklet – handy for sites and pages you wish to share and they don’t have a g+ button.

9. Upload some images to your profile. People are visual and having a profile image and several images across the top of you profile means you have put some effort into being on Google Plus. You are more likely to be added to circles if people can see what you look like. Personally I never add a logo to a circle to me it’s an indication that all I am going to get from that person is self promotional rubbish.

Of course if you don’t want better search traction, better engagement experience and more customers then don’t bother with Google Plus. Carry on as you are and let your competition get ahead of the game.

Sarah

Want to make the most of Google+? Sarah is the author of The 30 Day Google+ Challenge, available to prebuy now at just £4

 

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Charities and not for profits – could you be eligible for a Google Grant?

January 13, 2012 By 1 Comment
Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

Using their power for good, Google has launched a campaign aimed at raising the awareness of charities. Using their own Google AdWords programme, this grant entitles selected not-for-profit organisations to have free advertising alongside the usual relevant organic search results.

In the past, these ‘pay-per-click’ – or PPC – adverts have been restricted to companies with a larger marketing budget whilst charities lose out on both exposure and potential subsequent donations. But with this Google Grants campaign, charities are entitled up to $10,000 worth of free AdWords advertising per month that can not only enhance awareness, but also encourage potential volunteers to step forward who are just as valuable as monetary donations.

How Google AdWords work is really very simple. A company (or in this case, a charity) selects certain keywords and phrases their potential audience is likely to search for in Google. Then, when a Google user searches, for example, ‘cancer treatment’, an ad for a relevant charity such as Cancer Research will appear in a prominent position next to the organic search results. This means that the charity only reaches targeted and relevant audiences who are likely to be interested in the organisation.

These keywords and phrases can be changed at any time to reflect both on- going and temporary campaigns running via their charity’s website. Words cannot, however, be used if they do not reflect the charity’s primary focus or links that don’t lead to their own website. Other than that, the charity has free reign to choose and change their most important and useful keywords to attract Google users.

As well as other criteria, Google also offer Grantspro which is basically Google Grants for advanced charities that regularly reach their $10,000 monthly cap. If this figure is consistently reached and the charity abides by a couple of other qualifying terms, their AdWords monthly budget can be extended up to $40,000, sky-rocketing the charity’s online presence and potential donations and volunteer pool.

Applications are constantly being accepted by Google, so get in touch today to see how your charity or not-for-profit organisation could benefit from their Google Grants scheme.

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Google – Monopoly or Market Leader?

January 12, 2012 By 4 Comments

A guest post by Chris ‘Kip’ Carrier

Nederlands: Anti-Monopoly bordspel

Google, The PowerhouseWith Google dominating the tech news this week, we are going to look at the how, the why and the what will be.

OK, so we all know who or what Google is, they have dominated the search engine market for many years now, a natural monopoly (ie, people flood to them by choice, not by force) that like to help where they can. The city of their head office enjoys completely free wifi, they help charities etc etc. They are the good guys, right?

The Cry Babies – Twitter and Facebook

Twitter are publicly calling out Google, saying they are monopolising with the integration of Google Plus to Google Search, did people really not see this coming? I have been ranting and advising people for 6 months they need to be using G+, as there is a wind of change like no other.

Twitter should be scared of everyone, they have not done anything in the last few years, if I were an investor, I would have sold up a long time ago. A new facelift, new design, nothing else, at least Google evolve, update, improve and in my personal opinion, make the internet better!

Twitter is in panic mode, because Google Plus is the fastest growing Social Network, EVER. Some people pointed and laughed when it came out, not me.

They brought out Panda, this wiped out thousands of black hat SEO people overnight, you could hear the cheer go up from website owners and designers that do things properly, watching the harvesters of copy shrink back to the 3rd and 4th pages of Google searches (seriously, who looks at anything after page 1 or even 2?) and well written, unique websites started climbing up to where they belong!

Facebook, ahh, everybody loves FB, right? Nope, it was all there was, this is why people used it so much. The changes everybody has seen recently were a direct result of Google Plus, the FB boys are now updating it and improving it as fast as they can (unlike the Twitter team), because now they have some serious competition, competition that can affect search results, unlike Facebook!

Google and Google+, The Future

So, on Google plus, people truly interact, I have met more people on there than I have with 2-3 years of hammering Twitter and Facebook, people interact, share posts and opinions, laugh, cry and diversify (poetry!). I love it, I am even using it to interview some major players in British industry this year (such as Will King and a couple of others), thanks to Hangouts!

Anyway, you understand, I like Google+, it is no secret, so what of the future of Google?

Google has changed dramatically in the last 12 months, you may not see it, but they have, the social inclusion has been a tremendous shift in how their algorithms work, they have been busy acquiring technology to improve and modernise the way that you get results. Search will always be the same, you pop in what you want and press enter (or reach for the mouse and click search), but the way in which Google finds what you are looking for and the way it delivers it, major change!

Yesterday, Google dropped Google Plus into the normal search (I told you so, months ago), this is fantastic news, we are witness to the the internet evolving yet again, this is not a monopoly, the fact that Facebook and Twitter banished the Big G, means that they cannot offer their search results, just Google +’s! You can search for personal or standard, or both!

You can exclude certain websites showing up in searches, you can give kudos (+1) to websites in the results, you can search just your social network, friends, family and co-workers!

I think it is a thing of beauty.

What’s Next for Google

Image Reading: We know that there are apps and websites that can read text from images, this is old news, so watch out for this becoming the norm in searches too.

eCommerce stock levels: This one really excites me! Google will be checking your stock levels on products, so if I search for the Kipidget 2000 and you have no stock, you will not appear with the shops that do have it in stock!

Hours of business: Have you set up your hours of business on your Google map listing, G+ business page? Imagine searching for a Launderette at 7pm, the ones that set their hours to 9-5pm will not show high up either. This is great for people that do not cap their work hours each day! (Me, I am open 24-7!)

Mobile Websites: Oh this is the big one, marketing companies have been pitching separate mobile websites for over a year now, yet this produces duplicate content, something Google frowns upon. With “Responsive” eshops and websites, you now only need one site, that works on all platforms (tablets, phones, desktops and laptops).

In conclusion:

Google is evolving, are you?

Chris “Kip” Carrier is a web & graphic designer, primarily WordPress, with a passion for Social Media Marketing and iMacs. You can find him at Kip FX Design

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Twitter – A Bigger Search Engine Than Google?

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
English: a chart to describe the search engine...

Image via Wikipedia

It’s come to just about everyone’s attention that Twitter is HUGE. Twitter is used by almost every company, every celebrity, every wannabe celebrity, and every band to update clients on their goings-on, as well as inform future clients of their services. Most people,even those who aren’t on Twitter yet, also know that Twitter has it’s own search function that allows you to find accounts of people and companies that you would want to follow.

The Twitter search engine allows you to find users by post, by name, trends, and even tone. Trends often show what is popular on Twitter, from funny users that have quick quips to news reels from bigger celebrities and companies. Basically, it’s a 100% organic search engine that allows people to decide what shows first.

There are some good sides to this that can’t be achieved with a regular search engine. Spam sites and malware aren’t going to be in Twitter search results, unless you click outside links. It encourages conversation, followers, and also wit. The question remains – is it a bigger search engine than Google?

Well, yes and no.

It’s bigger in the sense that a lot of users can generate a lot of results in the Twitter feed, a lot more tweets probably are online than websites. There’s a much lower chance of viruses, and there’s a lot of companies that are using Twitter to advertise their services. There is a lot that Twitter offers as far as a community goes. And, the user base is massive. One of the most beneficial things about Twitter is that the tweets that are displayed in the search engines are always the newest that they have. Google and the others can’t say the same thing.

But, like with any search engine, Twitter has its own problems. You can’t separate business from personal accounts on Twitter. The results that you get from most searches aren’t as in-depth, nor are they even spelled correctly. If you are looking for grammatically correct musings from followers, searches, or otherwise, Twitter might not be the best choice.

Another issue a lot of people mention is that though Twitter’s user base is very large, it isn’t universal. There are a decent amount of people who aren’t plugged into Twitter, and therefore would not be likely to receive any message that you have there. The thought of nonusers using the search engine doesn’t make much sense, either. Would people choose a certain business because of their Twitter account?

Twitter has a very active community, but search engines like Google and Yahoo will always have the advantage when it comes to attracting a wider audience. Before you give up your SEO marketing campaign for Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, remember that the user base is much larger on these internet juggernauts. Instead, opt to blend both your Twitter and your website into one optimisation strategy that will keep you in the spotlight for all to see.

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Loving this Social Media Chart

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Blog, facebook, Google, Infographics, Links, Musings Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Google pays tribute to the late great Freddie Mercury

September 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Had he lived, Freddie Mercury would have been 65 today – and I bet he would still have been up on stage, as flamboyant as ever! Unfortunately, as we all know, he died of AIDS related causes on 24th November 1991, and the world mourned the passing of a true talent.

I was (and am) a massive Queen and Freddie fan, so I was thrilled to pop over to Google today and see the Google Doodle in Freddie’s honour. Click on over to Google, press play on the logo and sit back and watch – it’s a great piece of work.

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The 30 Day Challenges now have their own website!

August 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With the success of the 30 Day Challenges I’ve been running recently, and the fact that there are LOADS more in the pipeline, I wanted to move them away from this site, as it was beginning to be taken over!

So I’m happy to report that the Challenges now have their own site – you can see it here –> 30 Day Challenges.

The new site carries the same branding as this one, but is a much better place to focus on the Challenges, and blog posts related to them.

You can find the Challenge you need, join either the email challenge or buy the ebook, and sign up to get info on future Challenges – I’d highly recommend signing up as we have a lot of challenges coming up and I’d hate you to miss out!

Pop on over now and let me know what you think!

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