Some business owners start blogs to increase the amount of content on their website while others begin with a blog. To maximize the online impact and ability to make money with your website you need both static content (information that doesn't change much) and content that is updated regularly (news, specials, tips, etc). The updated content (blog) builds interest, traffic and authority, helping make you the one people trust. The static pages convert that interest and trust into sales.
For most companies, there is no need to have both a website and a blog, you can use the blogging software, Wordpress, as both. Wordpress uses 'pages' for your static content, (like the description of your business) and 'posts' for dynamic content and news. Pages can have pages and subpages, allowing you to create easy site navigation for your visitors. Categories and tags make it easy for your visitors to move around your site, finding the things they're most interested in.
Content for Static Pages
Every website should have the following:
* Information about your offer; your services and products
* Benefits; how do you help your customers?Why should they choose you?
* Examples and testimonials. Do you have happy customers? Tell everyone!
* Frequently asked questions - what do most people ask about your product or service?
* Contact information. Where are you? How do people reach you? Maps are always welcome. Ordering information. Don't make it hard for people to buy. Can people book appointments? Can they buy your products? Don't bury this, this should be foremost in your planning.
Satisfaction guarantee. If people don't know you, why should they do business with you? The dynamic pages of your blog can be used for relationship building with your customers and potential customers.
For your blog pages, think about:
Are you running a special promotion? Has anyone new joined your business? Do you have any tips you can share? The amount of things you can share to build relationships is limitless. You don't have to be a great writer, just be yourself.
With WordPress, it's easy to design and build a professional website with very little money. There are thousands of free website designs to choose from, you're sure to find one that fits you and your business perfectly. You'll have your website making money for you in no time.
Showing posts with label blog hosting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog hosting. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
What You Should Know About Web Hosting For Setting Up Your First Blog? By: Puripong Koomsin
Being a newbie or an experienced blogger, choosing the right web hosting solution is vital to the success of your blog. With so many offers out there, it’s easy to get lots and/or make the wrong choice. While there are many companies that offer compelling products, other merchants try to sell overpriced BS – so how do you choose the right web hosting?
First of all you have to determine what you actually need. What’s your blog going to be about? File sharing? Pictures of naked celebrities? Videos? Your niches defines what you need.
For file/video related stuff you would definitely need a lot of disc space, forget 5GB – you would need at least 250GB and a lot of bandwidth.
With frequently uploaded pictures, you might also consider more space, probably not 250GB, but something around 50GB. Although if you’re in it for the long run, be ready to upgrade your accounts fast.
Disc space is one issue, bandwidth is another. While there is a handful of quality unlimited bandwidth hosting solutions, most of them have lots and lots of downtimes. So if you’re just starting, consider purchasing a smaller deal for several months. Pretty much every hosting company wants to seduce you with “hot” deals, like “buy 6 months and get XX% off” – don’t buy that. They just want to enslave you for the long run so you wouldn’t want to change your hosting company when something goes wrong.
Just buy yourself a 3 month mini package with the minimal bandwidth and disc space you feel you could use up during that period, and then make your decision – either stay with that company and upgrade your plan, or seek for other solutions.
Aside from bandwidth and disc space, the absolutely most important thing your hosting company should have is MySQL databases. If your company allows less than 10 of them, or doesn’t allow them at all, screw them immediately. You need to know that you can’t setup a blog without databases, it’s just physically impossible – unless you don’t want to use wordpress and are willing to edit every single thing manually via html – good luck with that.
Other things you might consider while choosing the right hosting is whether or not it has a web-based FTP solution. Some companies have Flash web FTP clients that easily let you upload 100mb+ files without ever having to install any software. This means that you will be able to access/upload/download to your site anywhere and from any device supporting web browsing.
The main aspect, of course, is pricing. If you’re spending more than $4 per month on hosting for 5GB/250GB disc/transfer, you might as well go handing out money to the poor, it (your money) will be put to better use. Remember that spending more than $30 per year on hosting your average blog is a rip-off. Of course, if you use only large companies, then yeah, it’s the standard price, whilst you can easily find family-owned businesses with 100% uptime and get special deals with them. Communication is the key.
First of all you have to determine what you actually need. What’s your blog going to be about? File sharing? Pictures of naked celebrities? Videos? Your niches defines what you need.
For file/video related stuff you would definitely need a lot of disc space, forget 5GB – you would need at least 250GB and a lot of bandwidth.
With frequently uploaded pictures, you might also consider more space, probably not 250GB, but something around 50GB. Although if you’re in it for the long run, be ready to upgrade your accounts fast.
Disc space is one issue, bandwidth is another. While there is a handful of quality unlimited bandwidth hosting solutions, most of them have lots and lots of downtimes. So if you’re just starting, consider purchasing a smaller deal for several months. Pretty much every hosting company wants to seduce you with “hot” deals, like “buy 6 months and get XX% off” – don’t buy that. They just want to enslave you for the long run so you wouldn’t want to change your hosting company when something goes wrong.
Just buy yourself a 3 month mini package with the minimal bandwidth and disc space you feel you could use up during that period, and then make your decision – either stay with that company and upgrade your plan, or seek for other solutions.
Aside from bandwidth and disc space, the absolutely most important thing your hosting company should have is MySQL databases. If your company allows less than 10 of them, or doesn’t allow them at all, screw them immediately. You need to know that you can’t setup a blog without databases, it’s just physically impossible – unless you don’t want to use wordpress and are willing to edit every single thing manually via html – good luck with that.
Other things you might consider while choosing the right hosting is whether or not it has a web-based FTP solution. Some companies have Flash web FTP clients that easily let you upload 100mb+ files without ever having to install any software. This means that you will be able to access/upload/download to your site anywhere and from any device supporting web browsing.
The main aspect, of course, is pricing. If you’re spending more than $4 per month on hosting for 5GB/250GB disc/transfer, you might as well go handing out money to the poor, it (your money) will be put to better use. Remember that spending more than $30 per year on hosting your average blog is a rip-off. Of course, if you use only large companies, then yeah, it’s the standard price, whilst you can easily find family-owned businesses with 100% uptime and get special deals with them. Communication is the key.
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