From humble, open source beginnings, WordPress now powers over 61 million sites worldwide. The extent to which it has grown in popularity not just for bloggers but professional designers and developers is evidenced by Smashing Magazine recently launching an extended, dedicated WordPress section. I’m currently one of these working in web design in Chicago. The Project I recently had a very simple project of launching a blog with a small shopping cart installed in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup held in New Zealand. Wait-of-Nation.com went live a little over two months ago. The Client With a background in PR/Advertising my client was well versed in getting himself out there, which in a country of 4.5 million people really isn’t that hard to do. He had a good product (sports blog of the most popular sport in NZ), with a niche message/ slant (“Home of New Zealand’s crushing expectation” – that the All Blacks – the National team – – Read the full article
To build an effective, profitable, and customer-driven site, you need to dedicate more time and effort to information gathering and planning. The following are some guidelines that will help you build a successful website. What are your specific goals? Do you want a brochure site? Do you intend to sell services and/or products? Are you focused on branding and company awareness? Information and content? Social network communities? You need to think through this aspect since it will form the foundation of your overall strategy. Find websites within your industry which you can emulate. It is okay to borrow ideas, as long as you personalize them. Measure of success Usually, businesses succeed when specific goals are imposed on them. By having a clear goal, be it generating online income or attracting a certain number of visitors to your site, you enhance your chances of success. Take time to list down your goals. Remember that this list could change as your site – Read the full article
Over the recent years, consumers have been spending billions of dollars at e-Commerce sites. With the growth of online business, e-Commerce has become a very viable venture. Many people even begin an e-Commerce website as their main business. If you have a physical location where you operate your business from, beginning an e-Commerce website can provide an extra sales channel for you. Creating a site for selling coupons, services, or products online, however, involves a lot of research and planning. The following are steps you can take in starting an online business. Establish a business and marketing plan: Set up a meeting with your team members or business partners. Brainstorm together and write out all the plans in one document. The plan should include all startup and recurring expenses. Set up an overall sales forecast and expense budget. Choose a good domain name which will help customers find you: You need to choose a domain name for your website that – Read the full article
It’s pretty much understood that almost every business needs a website. Unfortunately, not every business owner has the expertise to set up one or the time to learn how. This is especially true for small, non-tech-oriented businesses that still need an online presence. Fortunately, there are a slew of services that can help businesses to get online in a fast, inexpensive and professional manner without having to learn coding. These point-and-click systems make it easy for a new webmaster to get a site set up quickly. They might not be the most robust solutions, but they might offer a quick start that can get a business online until something more permanent can be established. On that note, here are five code-free solutions for getting a business site online and running, often within a matter of minutes. Squarespace Squarespace offers a great deal of flexibility with its layouts and a slew of modules including blogs, forums, file storage and more. Users – Read the full article
According to eMarketer, shoppers are expected to spend 14.2% more shopping online in 2010 than in 2009. Are you part of the trend? Should you care if you aren’t? Shopping online has much more to offer than an expanded selection. You may not have thought about how much gas you spend driving to multiple stores or the impulse buys that creep into your cart. Before you dive in head first, consider these hidden benefits to shopping online versus shopping at bricks and mortar stores. Wish Lists Eliminate Guesswork: Many of us have had it with giving (and, if we’re honest, getting) bad gifts. We’re pretty confident that Uncle Alfred doesn’t want another necktie, but we inevitably buy one for him anyway. Most sites know that we’re frustrated with guessing how to buy for someone and put wish lists directly on their sites. Feel weird about telling people what you want? List Ideas, Kaboodle, and Boxed Up make it a cinch to make your own lists – Read the full article
Do you have your favorite WordPress plugins? I have a list of more than 10 ones that I install on every blog. Some help me backup easier, some improve the site speed and other plugins show me detailed stats of what people do on my blogs. All these plugins are great. But they are not the most important ones. The most important plugins for every serious blogger are these which help their blog generate revenue. Of course they can’t magically turn your blog into money machine – you still need to work hard and create great content. These plugins however can significantly boost your revenue – by improving the SEO and user interaction, by helping you to sell more ads, or by letting your users share the blog on social networks. Here is a list of the best ones you can install right now: 1. WP e-Commerce Now it’s easy to turn your WordPress blog into a shopping cart. The – Read the full article
Coupons still work. Consumers may not find them as often as they used to in the Sunday paper or in magazine inserts, but this doesn’t mean that coupons are no longer popular or effective – because they still are. Just do a quick check on the Web and immediately you’ll find tens of thousands of online coupon sites – like RetailMeNot and CouponSaver – offering discounts, special deals, free shipping offers, and other similar privileges to consumers. If, as a small business owner, online retailer, merchant, or Internet marketer, you still haven’t tried using coupons as an online sales tool, then you might want to start doing so – especially at a time when the world is still trying to recover from the financial crisis. According to recent studies, over 76 percent of the shopping population use coupons, which continue to gain such popularity that the number of people searching for them on the Web has grown to thrice as – Read the full article
Developing an e-Commerce site is an altogether different challenge from coming up with an official website or company blog. While the latter two are meant – in one way or another – to serve as means of communication and engagement, an e-Commerce site should be built to sell. And sell lots. Anyone who has ever shopped online will know that it takes more than just a piece of shopping cart software to be able to succeed in the online retail game. It also takes more than eye-catching web design or an impressive collection of product shots. Are you an online retailer or a small business owner looking to boost your online sales? To help you understand selling on the Internet, we present this list of traits that every e-Commerce site should have. Easy accessibility and navigation This is an absolute necessity. Your e-Commerce site should be accessible from various types of web browsers – Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, – Read the full article
