All Entries in the "Blog Template Design" Category
Icon Demon Not A Good Buy
I like to use icons ion websites and I do buy templates at template monster. So, when I saw a special offer for a membership to Icon Demon, I decided to try it out. They have some nice icons, but the way the site works, Icon Demon was a total waste of my time. Here’s why;
1. You can view individual icons and sort them by category. Good so far, right?
2. You have to drag each individual icon into the shopping cart window. You cannot drag them by sets.
3. Then you click the download button for all the icons you dragged into the cart.
4. Then you go to a page that says click here to go to your downloads page.
5. Then you have to click download for each and every individual icon you previously dragged into the cart window.
6. The icons are numbered, no names to describe them and if you accidentally click to download the same icon twice, it just gives it a different number rather than saying it already exists, do you want to replace it.
7. There is no download all button.
8. They have icon sets for download, if you want to pay them an additional $99.
So, basically, the site is designed to be a hassle, unless you upgrade to their premium membership. The offer at Template Monster is just a come on.
On a positive note, this demonstrates how usability of a website is extremely important. I’ll never use or recommend Icon Demon to anyone because of the hassle of using the site. The hassle at Icon Demon seems very intentional, but is your website easy to use?
If you aren’t looking to suck people in to buy a premium membership like Icon Demon and you have a real offer that has value instead and aren’t trying to “trick” your customers, you should make sure that you are not adding too many steps or complications for your potential customers.
I welcome anyone from Icon Demon to come and tell me why it isn’t just a come on to con me into the premium membership and that the hassle is worthwhile. Because as it is, the money I paid for a membership to IconDemon.com was a total waste of time and money.
Why Do I Need a Blog?
Why do I need a business blog and why should I hire someone to manage it for me?
By now, most business Website Owners have learned there are advantages to having a company blog. But why do I need a company blog? How will it really help me?
Most bloggers, even those who have been blogging for a long time, do not truly understand all of the ways a blog can benefit your business. They are good bloggers. They even may know a little about SEO and can put all the keywords and phrases into your blog. But do they really know about blog marketing and what the benefits are for their clients? Do they really know SEO or the technical aspects of operating a blog?
Do you know all of the benefits of having a business blog?
Let’s see;
Why does my Business need a Blog?
A business blog is the most cost-effective way to add fresh content to your website daily.
It is the most affordable way to build link popularity.
A business blog can make you money through Conversational Marketing.
A business blog will help drive more traffic to your website.
It gives you a place to offer special deals, make announcements, issue press releases, and get feedback from customers.
You can have a private blog that your employees or shareholders read.
There are way too many ways your company can benefit from a business blog to list on one page. As they say; “Think Outside The Box” and create new ways blogs can be used. All the uses for a blog have not even been invented yet. Be the first to try something new. Call us at 786-317-8774 and get a free business blog consultation. We’ll brainstorm with you!
Your business blog can be within your website or on it’s own domain name.
Your company blog can be used to help capture a specific search phrase or phrases in the search engines.
You can have a company blog in your website and one on its’ own domain name, each achieving a different purpose.
You can have multiple blogs all working for you at the same time. The options are endless.
It is not a one-size-fits-all deal. Our Blog Consultant will talk with you, analyze your business, and come up with a strategy that benefits your business. Click here to get a free business blog management quote.
Blog Management and Marketing
Blog Content
Your blog content will make a lot of difference to how well you do with both the search engines and with visitors. Whatever your goal is for your blog, to make your blog popular to read, to make sales, to drive traffic to your website, to get people to sign up for something like a newsletter or affiliate program, or something else, you will need good, original content.
Not only do you need good original content on your blog, you need it every single day.
Blog search websites like technorati.com and Google’s BlogSearch list blogs by the most recent posts that match the user’s keywords. If you are not posting daily, you can get buried beneath all of the other blogs that do one post or more every day. Our daily blogging service will make sure your blog is updated every day or more often if you choose that option.
Blog Posting is more than just writing. If you want your blog to be interesting to user and also rank well in the search engines, you need to know how to structure your blog posts properly.
Do you know the proper way to write your blog post titles?
Do you know how to use keywords in your blog post for the search engines without seeming spammy or obvious to your readers?
Do you know how to use good anchor text and a proper linking strategy?
Our bloggers are trained to write relevant, interesting blog posts that are also optimized for the search engines. Read more about our Daily Blog Posting Service.
Social Bookmarking and Social Networking
Social Bookmarking and Social Networking are extremely beneficial to your blog. It can help you with link popularity, attracting more visitors to your blog, more comments on your blog posts, and even help you rank better with the search engines. However, social bookmarking is time consuming.
Many people try to automate the process for that reason. Automated social bookmarking will not get you all of the benefits that social networking will get you if you take the time to do it yourself. Most business owners do not have the time it takes to participate on these social networks. That is why Blog Content Provider does it for you. Our basic social bookmarking package comes with our Daily Blogging Service, but we also offer social bookmarking as a standalone service. Read more about our Social Bookmarking Service.
Professional Full Service Blog Management
Let our staff completely manage your business blog for you. We will handle everything. We will choose a domain name for you where necessary, provide blog hosting, do the installation, create or choose a blog template, optimize your blog for the search engines, provide the daily content, and do the social bookmarking. You turn your business blog over to us and we do it all for you. Read more about our Complete Business Blog Management Service.
Blog SEO and Programming
Blog Installation
WordPress claims you can install wordpress in just 7 minutes. Some cpanels have fantastico that will automatically create a database and install wordpress for you. But is that all there is to installing a wordpress blog? No. There are better ways to securely install a wordpress blog on your server.
Then you need to choose the right plugins to enhance the usability and improve the SEO of your blog. Every blog is different. Every blog has different goals and obstacles. So choosing the right plugins is more than just going to someone’s favorite list of plugins and using them all.
Some blog service companies brag that they install wordpress with more than 80 plugins! Wow! 80! How many of those plugins do you really need? Usually just a few. We securely install your wordpress blog and choose plugins for you that fit your specific needs. Read more about Blog Installation.
Blog Setup and Configuration
A lot of people will tell you that choosing the settings in the admin area of your wordpress blog is self-explanatory. To who? There are a lot of choices to make in the admin area.
An experienced Blog Manager knows which settings are best to use from experience. For instance;
Do you know the best sites to put into your ping list?
Do you know the proper way to create categories?
Post Slugs?
Is time-stamping a good idea?
Do you know how to configure all of the plugins or get an API Key?
Our Blog installation specialists will set everything up for you. Read more about Blog Configuration.
Blog Theme Installation and Editing
Here again, it sounds easy. You choose a theme, upload it to your themes directory, and voila! You’re done right? No. Choosing a theme isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are tons of free themes on the web. You could buy one from a designer. You can have one custom made for you.
Do you know a good theme from a bad one? I mean besides how pretty it is. Did you know that sometimes free themes have hidden malicious code in them, put there by the programmer/designer?
Are you able to determine good code from bad code? Is the code in the theme written in a way that will hurt your chances in the search engines?
Do you know how to edit the php in the header.php file, sidebar.php, or footer.php to add the enhancements that will make your blog both more attractive and more productive?
Choosing the right theme for your blog is more than just finding one that looks nice. You do not need to have a custom blog theme built. You can use a free blog theme. But you need to know how to choose the right one. Our Blog Installation Service includes choosing and installing the right theme for you. If you want a custom theme, you can read more about Custom Blog Themes here.
Blog SEO
You need to optimize your blog for the search engines. That means editing the code of your blog theme, setting up proper permalink structure, creating the right categories, and even choosing the right plugins, among other things. Our Blog SEO specialists go over your blog theme line by line to get rid of unwanted or unnecessary code.
We fix the blog title structure. We install and configure your blog plugins. We create a proper permalink structure. We edit your blog template to install feedburner, email scripts, affiliate buttons, or whatever else you need. Our clients are very happy with the search engine rankings their blogs are getting. Let us show you how we can improve your results. Read more about Blog SEO.
If you are not sure what you need, call us at 786-317-8774 for a free business blog management or SEO consultation.
The Importance Of Your Blog Theme
Many new bloggers do not fully understand the importance of a blog theme. There are several things to think about when choosing a blog theme, chief among them is the ability to optimize it for search performance. When it comes to SEO, not all blog themes are created equal. But SEO is not the only thing that is important. Other things to think about in choosing a blog theme are:
- Design – Is your blog theme attractive?
- Niche – Does your blog theme fit your niche well?
- Easily Adaptable – Can you modify your theme with ease or is the code too thick?
- Widgetized – I don’t like widgetized blog themes for myself, but many bloggers like them. They do make certain aspects of modification easier, especially if you are not good at messing around with code. If you prefer widgets then make that a point for your blog theme. If you are like me and would prefer to modify your files directly then FTP them back to your server then don’t worry about widgets.
- Plugins – Does your blog “freak out” when you use certain plugins? You might try another one.
- Archives – I’ve had several blog themes whose archives don’t work properly. Either choose another one or download the SRG Clean Archives plugin. You’ll have to modify your sidebar somewhat to use it, but it’s fairly easy to do.
When it comes to choosing an appropriate blog theme for your new blog, make sure you get one that is optimized for search, attractive, and appropriate for your niche.
3 Things Your Blog Needs To Succeed
When it comes to business blogging, or commercial blogging, it’s not the same thing as personal blogging or blogging to make money. You are blogging to make money, but you are not trying to squeeze out revenue from your blog. You are using your blog as a marketing tool to lead people to your website so that you can close the sale and make money on your products and services. Your blog is the lead generator; your website is the salesman.
So what does your lead generation blog need in order to do its job well? Here are the three absolutely essential ingredients to make sure your company blog stands out and drives traffic to your website:
- Quality, original content – Every day. We’re not talking about private label rights or recycled eye candy. Graphics are nice, but content is better. Eat a meal and not just a snack! Take your company talking points and turn them into a blog by getting into a real conversation with your customers about their needs and your desire to fill a niche within the marketplace. It all starts with quality, original content.
- Links – You need to link to your website. Not just the home page either. I’m talking about real links to every page that is important on your website. And your links need to be in the body of your blog posts as well as in your sidebar blogroll. Take your important keywords and turn them into anchor text and link to each page on your website using the appropriate anchor text.
- The right template – It can be custom-made, but it doesn’t have to be. An off-the-shelf template works just as well as long as it is SEOd properly. Your blog template needs to be crawlable so making sure that the code in your template makes it easy for the search engines to find what they need is absolutely essential. Your blog template must be able to attract a reader’s eye quickly and not drive them away, so attractiveness is important but even an ugly template with the right SEO will get you the traffic you are looking for. When it comes to getting ranked in the search engines, SEO is far more important than being pretty.
These are the three most essential elements to a successful company blog. Other things are nice, but without these three things going for you, you might as well hang it up. Everything else is gravy.
